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
9 - Which Way Does Policy Move?
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
Since early in the nineteenth century, [the major political parties] have presented their programs formally in official party platforms. Asking for total power in the two elected branches, they have been eager to accept the total responsibility and accountability that would accompany it. That was the theory of party government; and not only the politicians, but the people accepted it…. The people listened to the arguments of the two parties and made their choices. And when they did, the party they elected had a full opportunity to carry out its mandate.
– Sundquist, 1988INTRODUCTION
Thus far in this book we have focused on party roll rates, which indicate how frequently each party has suffered unwanted policy changes. In this chapter, we consider policy directions, which indicate which way – left or right – bills reaching a final-passage vote propose to move policy. The reader may recall that we first considered policy directions in Chapter 4, finding that the adoption of Reed's rules sharply increased the proportion of bills moving policy toward the majority party (leftward for Democratic majorities, rightward for Republican majorities). In the post-Reed era, our data showed that Democratic speakers preside over mostly leftward moves, while Republican speakers preside over mostly rightward moves.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Setting the AgendaResponsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives, pp. 171 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005