Congress Reconsidered / Edition 12

by Lawrence C. Dodd, Bruce I. Oppenheimer, C. Lawrence Evans

Overview

Since its first edition, Congress Reconsidered was designed to make available the best contemporary work from leading congressional scholars in a form that is both challenging and accessible to undergraduates.

For almost four decades, Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer have delivered on this goal. With their Twelfth Edition, this tradition continues as contributing authors focus on how various aspects of Congress have changed over time: Lawrence Evans and Wendy Schiller discuss the U.S. Senate and the meaning of dysfunction; Molly E. Reynolds analyzes the politics of the budget and appropriations process in a polarized Congress; and Danielle M. Thomsen looks at the role of women and voter preferences in the 2018 elections. With a strong new focus on political polarization, this bestselling volume remains on the cutting edge with key insights into the workings of Congress.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544345017
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/13/2021
Edition description:	Twelfth Edition
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lawrence C. Dodd holds the Manning J. Dauer Eminent Scholar Chair in Political Science at the University of Florida. His books include Coalitions in Parliamentary Government (1976), Congress and the Administrative State (coauthored with Richard Schott, 1979), The Dynamics of American Politics (coedited with Cal Jillson, 1994), Learning Democracy (coauthored with Leslie E. Anderson, 2005), and Thinking About Congress (2012). His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Polity, Journal of Democracy, and elsewhere. Dodd has served as a congressional fellow, Hoover national fellow, and Woodrow Wilson Center fellow; president of the Southern and Southwestern Political Science Associations; and chair of the APSA’s Legislative Studies Section.

Bruce I. Oppenheimer is professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. He has been a Brookings fellow in Governmental Studies (1970–1971) and an APSA congressional fellow (1974–1975). He is author of Oil and the Congressional Process: The Limits of Symbolic Politics (1974). His book Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (1999), cowritten with Frances Lee, was awarded the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation’s D. B. Hardeman Prize for the best book on Congress. He is also the editor of U.S. Senate Exceptionalism (2002) and the author of numerous articles. His recent research focuses on Congress and energy policy and on variation in competition in open-seat House primaries.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures
Preface
Contributors
Part I: Patterns and Dynamics of Congressional Change
Chapter 1: The U.S. Senate and the Meaning of Dysfunction - C. Lawrence Evans and Wendy J. Schiller
Chapter 2: Lending and Reclaiming Power: Majority Leadership in the House From the 1950s to Trump - John H. Aldrich and David W. Rohde
Part II: Elections, Constituencies, and Representation
Chapter 3: Voters, Candidates, Parties, and Issues in Congressional Elections - Robert S. Erikson and Gerald C. Wright
Chapter 4: Partisanship, Money, and Competition: Elections and the Transformation of Congress Since the 1970s - Gary C. Jacobson
Chapter 5: Women Running, Women Winning: Voter Preferences in 2018 - Danielle M. Thomsen
Chapter 6: Black-Latino Relations in Congress: Examining Institutional Context and Inter-Minority Group Relations Further - Robert R. Preuhs and Rodney E. Hero
Part III: Parties and Polarization
Chapter 7: The Dynamics of Party Government in Congress - Steven S. Smith and Gerald Gamm
Chapter 8: House Parties, Divided: Intraparty Organization in the Contemporary Congress - Ruth Bloch Rubin
Chapter 9: The Struggle to Legislate in Polarized Times - Sarah Binder
Chapter 10: The War Over Judges in the Senate - Gregory Koger
Part IV: Congress and the Policy Process
Chapter 11: Enduring Continuities in Congressional Lawmaking - James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee
Chapter 12: Legislative Styles and the Dynamics of Congressional Behavior - Tracy Sulkin
Chapter 13: The Politics of the Budget and Appropriations Process in a Polarized Congress - Molly E. Reynolds
Chapter 14: Party, Ideology, and Legislative Effectiveness in the U.S. Senate - Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman
Part V: Congress in a Separation of Powers System
Chapter 15: Congressional Investigations in a Polarized Era Or Has Polarization (and Trump?) Broken the Investigative Check? - Douglas L. Kriner and Eric Schickler
Chapter 16: How Congressional Polarization Is Transforming the Separation of Powers - Nolan Mc Carty
Chapter 17: The 2020 Congressional Elections In a Time of COVID-19, Economic Turmoil, and Trump - Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer
Suggested Readings
Index

Editorial Reviews

Congress Reconsidered is always relevant, as the authors shift the focus of each edition to include chapters that cover the latest emphases of scholarly research on the institution. This text has no equal when it comes to a set of articles that inform students about Congress, research on the topic, and challenges confronted by the legislative branch.

Charles S. Bullock

This edited volume is chock-full of thoughtful, empirically-minded essays by respected congressional scholars. It would be difficult to construct a text that is more effective than Dodd and Oppenheimer’s in offering such accessible but serious treatments of contemporary issues in the U.S. Congress.

Barry Burden

Congress Reconsidered is the best text of its kind. Every article and chapter in the book helps convey to students that Congress is more than just the group of people they see on TV. Students are often amazed at the breadth of scholarship on Congress and, through this book, come to understand how it is constrained and influenced by other institutions.

Rob Mellen Jr.

For seasoned congressional scholars and beginners alike, Congress Reconsidered once again offers essential insights that place the contemporary Congress in political context. This book effectively situates Congress at the nexus of virtually every major topic in American politics, from elections to campaign finance, inter-branch politics, partisanship, representation, and public policy-making. It is, in short, an indispensable resource for making sense of American politics in an era of political upheaval.

Walter Wilson