Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Setting the Agenda
- 1 Introduction
- PART I WHY PARTY GOVERNMENT?
- PART II NEGATIVE AGENDA POWER
- 3 Modeling Agenda Power
- 4 The Primacy of Reed's Rules in House Organization
- 5 Final Passage Votes
- 6 The Costs of Agenda Control
- 7 The Textbook Congress and the Committee on Rules
- 8 The Bills Reported from Committee
- 9 Which Way Does Policy Move?
- PART III THE CONSEQUENCES OF POSITIVE AGENDA POWER AND CONDITIONAL PARTY GOVERNMENT
- Appendix
- Addendum
- Bibliography
- Index
- Author Index
3 - Modeling Agenda Power
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Setting the Agenda
- 1 Introduction
- PART I WHY PARTY GOVERNMENT?
- PART II NEGATIVE AGENDA POWER
- 3 Modeling Agenda Power
- 4 The Primacy of Reed's Rules in House Organization
- 5 Final Passage Votes
- 6 The Costs of Agenda Control
- 7 The Textbook Congress and the Committee on Rules
- 8 The Bills Reported from Committee
- 9 Which Way Does Policy Move?
- PART III THE CONSEQUENCES OF POSITIVE AGENDA POWER AND CONDITIONAL PARTY GOVERNMENT
- Appendix
- Addendum
- Bibliography
- Index
- Author Index
Summary
I believe it to be the duty of the Speaker … standing squarely on the platform of his party, to assist in so far as he properly can the enactment of legislation in accordance with the declared principles and policies of his party and by the same token to resist the enactment of legislation in violation thereof.
– Speaker Nicholas Longworth (R-/OH), 1925My fifth principle is to please the majority of the majority. On occasion, a particular issue might excite a majority made up mostly of the minority…. The job of Speaker is not to expedite legislation that runs counter to the wishes of the majority of his majority…. On each piece of legislation, I actively seek to bring our party together. I do not feel comfortable scheduling any controversial legislation unless I know we have the votes on our side first.
– Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), 2003INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we begin modeling agenda power – the ability to influence what gets voted on, when, and how. We argue that the majority party routinely uses its near-monopoly of formal agenda power in order to keep bills off the floor agenda that would, if passed, displease majorities of its membership. This negative agenda power is unconditional, in the sense that its exercise does not vary with the similarity of the party's members' (constituency-induced or personal) ideas of good public policy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Setting the AgendaResponsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives, pp. 37 - 49Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005