Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 2007 M03 5
The second edition of Legislative Leviathan provides an incisive new look at the inner workings of the House of Representatives in the post-World War II era. Re-evaluating the role of parties and committees, Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins view parties in the House - especially majority parties - as a species of 'legislative cartel'. These cartels seize the power, theoretically resident in the House, to make rules governing the structure and process of legislation. Most of the cartel's efforts are focused on securing control of the legislative agenda for its members. The first edition of this book had significant influence on the study of American politics and is essential reading for students of Congress, the presidency, and the political party system.
 

Contents

I
vi
II
4
III
24
V
26
VII
28
VIII
30
IX
34
X
41
XLVII
139
XLVIII
140
XLIX
144
L
155
LI
158
LIII
162
LV
163
LVI
164

XI
46
XII
48
XIII
49
XIV
50
XV
52
XVI
53
XVII
54
XVIII
56
XIX
61
XX
64
XXI
65
XXII
67
XXIV
68
XXV
74
XXVI
77
XXVII
81
XXVIII
83
XXIX
86
XXXI
88
XXXII
89
XXXIII
93
XXXIV
96
XXXV
101
XXXVI
103
XXXVII
106
XXXVIII
108
XXXIX
109
XL
121
XLI
124
XLII
132
XLIII
133
XLIV
136
XLV
138
LVII
179
LVIII
180
LIX
183
LX
185
LXI
186
LXII
187
LXIII
197
LXIV
217
LXV
220
LXVI
222
LXVII
224
LXVIII
226
LXIX
230
LXX
236
LXXI
239
LXXII
241
LXXIII
242
LXXIV
244
LXXVI
245
LXXVII
250
LXXVIII
259
LXXIX
260
LXXX
264
LXXXI
268
LXXXII
269
LXXXIII
276
LXXXIV
280
LXXXV
290
LXXXVI
292
LXXXVII
296
LXXXVIII
300
Copyright

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Popular passages

Page 277 - As a rule, a bill committed is a bill doomed. When it goes from the clerk's desk to a committee-room it crosses a parliamentary bridge of sighs to dim dungeons of silence whence it will never return.
Page 277 - Wilson had pointed out that when a bill "goes from the Clerk's desk to a committee room, it crosses a parliamentary bridge of sighs to dim dungeons of silence whence it will never return.

About the author (2007)

Gary W. Cox is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. In addition to numerous articles in the areas of legislative and electoral politics, he is author of The Efficient Secret (winner of the Samuel H. Beer dissertation prize in 1983); co-author of Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House (winner of the Richard F. Fenno Prize in 1993) and Elbridge Gerry's Salamander: The Electoral Consequences of the Reapportionment Revolution (Cambridge, 2002); and author of Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral Systems (1997), which was awarded APSA's award for the best book in political science (Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award), the best book in comparative politics (Gregory Luebbert Prize), and the best book in political economy. His latest book, Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the US House of Representatives, with co-author Mathew McCubbins, was published in 2005. Cox is a former Guggenheim Fellow and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.

Mathew D. McCubbins is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His authored and co-authored works include Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House, 1st Edition (1993); Under the Watchful Eye: Managing Presidential Campaigns in the Television Era (1992); and Stealing the Initiative: How State Government Responds to Direct Democracy (2001). Recent co-edited books include The Origins of Liberty: Political and Economic Liberalization in the Modern World (1997) and Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality (2000). His most recent book is Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the US House of Representatives (Cambridge, 2005) with Gary Cox. McCubbins is also the author of numerous articles in journals such as Legislative Studies Quarterly; the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; Law and Contemporary Problems and the American Journal of Political Science. He is the coordinator of the Law and the Behavioral Sciences Project and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for 1994–5.

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