- The Oxford Handbook of American Political Development
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Distinctiveness and Necessity of American Political Development
- Pathways to the Present: Political Development in America
- Analyzing American Political Development as It Happens
- Political Economy and American Political Development
- Liberalism and American Political Development
- Gender and the American State
- Political Culture: Consensus, Conflict, and Culture War
- APD and Rational Choice
- Comparative Politics and American Political Development
- American Political Development and Political History
- Qualitative Methods and American Political Development
- The American State
- Congress and American Political Development
- The Presidency and American Political Development: The Advent—and Illusion—of an Executive-Centered Democracy
- Law and the Courts
- Bureaucracy and the Administrative State
- Federalism and American Political Development
- The States and American Political Development
- Cities and Urbanization in American Political Development
- Representation
- Patterns in American Elections
- How Suffrage Politics Made—and Makes—America
- Political Parties in American Political Development
- Polarization and American Political Development
- Public Opinion
- Interest Groups and American Political Development
- Social Movements and the Institutionalization of Dissent in America
- The Color Line and the State: Race and American Political Development
- The Welfare State
- The Carceral State and American Political Development
- Identity and Law in American Political Development
- Seeing Sexuality: State Development and the Fragmented Status of LGBTQ Citizenship
- The Family
- The Political Development of the Regulatory State
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
While early works in American political development (APD) incorporated congressional actors in accounts of state-building, policymaking, and social reform, there is a growing body of historically oriented scholarship that places the institution of Congress front and center. We highlight three major streams of contemporary congressional research that engage with APD. The first analyzes the development of congressional institutions, often drawing upon concepts of path dependence and layering to understand the presence or absence of change in legislative operations. Second, several important studies of state-building and policy development highlight the role of congressional actors in driving—or blocking—critical political and social reforms. Finally, new datasets that track congressional elections and roll call voting over long time spans have given rise to a growing literature that uses historical evidence to test contemporary theories of legislative behavior. We close with a discussion of the contributions and pitfalls of using historical evidence in this way.
Keywords: congress, institutional development, legislative institutions, NOMINATE scores, path dependence, layering, filibuster, committee system, Reed Rules, sectionalism
Eric Schickler is Jeffrey and Ashley McDermott Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of California-Berkeley. He is the author of Disjointed Pluralism, and co-author, with Greg Wawro, of Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate. Both books received APSA's Richard F. Fenno Award for the best book published on legislative politics. He is also co-author of Partisan Hearts and Minds (with Donald Green and Bradley Palmquist), and has authored or co-authored articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, Studies in American Political Development, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Social Science History.
Ruth Bloch Rubin, University of California, Berkeley
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- The Oxford Handbook of American Political Development
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: The Distinctiveness and Necessity of American Political Development
- Pathways to the Present: Political Development in America
- Analyzing American Political Development as It Happens
- Political Economy and American Political Development
- Liberalism and American Political Development
- Gender and the American State
- Political Culture: Consensus, Conflict, and Culture War
- APD and Rational Choice
- Comparative Politics and American Political Development
- American Political Development and Political History
- Qualitative Methods and American Political Development
- The American State
- Congress and American Political Development
- The Presidency and American Political Development: The Advent—and Illusion—of an Executive-Centered Democracy
- Law and the Courts
- Bureaucracy and the Administrative State
- Federalism and American Political Development
- The States and American Political Development
- Cities and Urbanization in American Political Development
- Representation
- Patterns in American Elections
- How Suffrage Politics Made—and Makes—America
- Political Parties in American Political Development
- Polarization and American Political Development
- Public Opinion
- Interest Groups and American Political Development
- Social Movements and the Institutionalization of Dissent in America
- The Color Line and the State: Race and American Political Development
- The Welfare State
- The Carceral State and American Political Development
- Identity and Law in American Political Development
- Seeing Sexuality: State Development and the Fragmented Status of LGBTQ Citizenship
- The Family
- The Political Development of the Regulatory State
- Index
