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Leading the New Majorities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Barbara Sinclair
Barbara Sinclair
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Extract

When a political party wrests control of either house of Congress from the other, expectations for change are usually high and that was certainly the case in January 2007 when Democrats took majorities in both chambers for the first time in 12 years. What did the new majorities—and specifically their leaders—promise? To what extent have they delivered? And how do the experiences of the new majorities during their first nine months conform with or raise questions about our theories of Congress? This is perforce an interim report but, even so, it can perhaps shed some light on our theories as well as provide a first assessment of the new majorities and their leaders.In addition to the references cited here, this paper is based on interviews, observation and news accounts.

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 89 - 93
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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References

Aldrich, John, and David Rohde. 2000. “The Consequences of Party Organization in the House: Theory and Evidence on Conditional Party Government.” In Polarized Politics: Congress and the President in a Partisan Era, eds. Jon Bond and Richard Fleisher. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
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Sinclair, Barbara. 2006. Party Wars: Polarization and the Politics of the Policy Process. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar