Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- THE AMERICAN CONGRESS READER
- PART I THE AMERICAN CONGRESS: MODERN TRENDS
- PART II REPRESENTATION AND LAWMAKING IN CONGRESS: THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
- PART III CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS AND POLICY ALIGNMENTS
- PART IV MEMBERS, GOALS, RESOURCES, AND STRATEGIES
- PART V PARTIES AND LEADERS
- 14 Institutional Context and Leadership Style
- 15 Setting the Agenda
- 16 Party Influence in Congress
- PART VI THE STANDING COMMITTEES
- PART VII THE RULES OF THE LEGISLATIVE GAME
- PART VIII THE FLOOR AND VOTING
- PART IX CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT
- PART X CONGRESS AND THE COURTS
- PART XI CONGRESS, LOBBYISTS, AND INTEREST GROUPS
- PART XII CONGRESS AND BUDGET POLITICS
- PART XIII FURTHER READINGS ON CONGRESSIONAL POLITICS
- References
14 - Institutional Context and Leadership Style
The House from Cannon to Rayburn
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- THE AMERICAN CONGRESS READER
- PART I THE AMERICAN CONGRESS: MODERN TRENDS
- PART II REPRESENTATION AND LAWMAKING IN CONGRESS: THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
- PART III CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS AND POLICY ALIGNMENTS
- PART IV MEMBERS, GOALS, RESOURCES, AND STRATEGIES
- PART V PARTIES AND LEADERS
- 14 Institutional Context and Leadership Style
- 15 Setting the Agenda
- 16 Party Influence in Congress
- PART VI THE STANDING COMMITTEES
- PART VII THE RULES OF THE LEGISLATIVE GAME
- PART VIII THE FLOOR AND VOTING
- PART IX CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT
- PART X CONGRESS AND THE COURTS
- PART XI CONGRESS, LOBBYISTS, AND INTEREST GROUPS
- PART XII CONGRESS AND BUDGET POLITICS
- PART XIII FURTHER READINGS ON CONGRESSIONAL POLITICS
- References
Summary
Cooper and Brady argue that the homogeneity of legislative parties' electoral constituencies varies over time. The more homogeneous the electoral constituency of a party, the more cohesive the legislative party. A cohesive legislative party, in turn, concentrates power in the hands of central leaders and relies more on leaders to direct policymaking. The less homogeneous the electoral constituency and the less cohesive the legislative party, the more power will be dispersed and the more leadership will be oriented toward bargaining and maintaining good relations within the party.
Leadership is an aspect of social life that has been extensively studied in a variety of institutional or organizational settings. Yet, it remains a topic in which our intellectual grasp falls far short of our pragmatic sense of the impacts leaders have on organizational operations and performance.
This is as true, if not more true, of Congress than of other organizations. Here, too, analysts are perplexed by the difficulties of conceptualizing key variables, treating highly transient and idiosyncratic personal factors, and identifying relationships amidst a maze of interactive effects. Moreover, the task is rendered even more complex by the highly politicized character of the Congress as compared with most of the organizational contexts in which leadership has been studied.
This is not to say that knowledge and understanding of congressional leadership have remained static. Nonetheless, our grip on the topic is as yet not firm; we continue to lack a developed sense of what we should be looking at and how to proceed.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The American Congress Reader , pp. 177 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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