Minority Rights, Majority Rule: Partisanship and the Development of CongressMinority Rights, Majority Rule seeks to explain a phenomenon evident to most observers of the US Congress. In the House of Representatives, majority parties rule and minorities are seldom able to influence national policy making. In the Senate, minorities quite often call the shots, empowered by the filibuster to frustrate the majority. Why did the two chambers develop such distinctive legislative styles? Conventional wisdom suggests that differences in the size and workload of the House and Senate led the two chambers to develop very different rules of procedure. Sarah Binder offers an alternative, partisan theory to explain the creation and suppression of minority rights, showing that contests between partisan coalitions have throughout congressional history altered the distribution of procedural rights. Most importantly, new majorities inherit procedural choices made in the past. This institutional dynamic has fuelled the power of partisan majorities in the House but stopped them in their tracks in the Senate. |
Contents
The partisan basis of procedural choice | 1 |
The evolving concepts of House and Senate minority rights | 19 |
Procedural choice in the early Congress The case of the previous question | 43 |
Allocating minority rights in the House 17891990 | 68 |
Institutionalizing party in the nineteenthcentury House | 86 |
Stacking the partisan deck in the twentiethcentury House | 132 |
Inherited rules and procedural choice in the Senate | 167 |
Other editions - View all
Minority Rights, Majority Rule: Partisanship and the Development of Congress Sarah A. Binder No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
103rd Congress 11th Congress 51st Congress adopted alignments amendments argued bill caucus chamber rules changes in minority Chapter cloture cohesion Cong Congressional Globe Congressional Quarterly Congressional Record cross-party coalition debate limits defeated dilatory motions disappearing quorum discharge petition discharge rule dural elections Federalist filibuster floor agenda gag rule goals House and Senate House rules ICPSR increases inherited rules institutional change John Stanly leaders legislative activity limit minority rights majority party majority's measure minority obstructionism minority party members motions to adjourn nority obstruct opposed order of business package parliamentary rights partisan differences partisan majorities partisanship party control party's percent period political previous question motion previous question rule procedural change procedural choices procedural reform procedural rights proposed protect Reed's rules Republican majority Rice party roll-call votes Rule 22 rule change Rules Committee Senate rules Speaker suggests suppress minority rights suspend the rules Table tion two-thirds U.S. Congress Whigs workload