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Agendas, Side Issues and Leadership in the US House

Author

Listed:
  • William Hixon

    (Lawrence University, P.O. Box 599, Appleton, WI 54912–0599, USA; william.hixon@lawrence.edu)

  • Bryan W. Marshall

    (Department of Political Science, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056–2807, USA; marshabw@muohio.edu)

Abstract

We introduce a view of congressional party leaders as strategic manipulators of issue dimensions, similar in spirit to Riker's (1982, 1986) heresthetics. Party leaders have incentives to add to bills content from a secondary dimension in order to attract moderates’ support. This strategy can be cheaper than compromising along the liberal-conservative dimension. Empirically, moderates differ in their second-dimension preferences from non-moderates–a necessary condition for the strategy to work as we suggest it might. House passage of a 1997 emergency appropriations bill illustrates this strategy. Our view of party leadership challenges to some extent the argument that legislative parties reduce the dimensionality of congressional decision making and questions the one-dimensional picture of congressional politics.

Suggested Citation

  • William Hixon & Bryan W. Marshall, 2007. "Agendas, Side Issues and Leadership in the US House," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 19(1), pages 83-99, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:19:y:2007:i:1:p:83-99
    DOI: 10.1177/0951629807071020
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Snyder, James M. & Groseclose, Tim, 2001. "Estimating Party Influence on Roll Call Voting: Regression Coefficients versus Classification Success," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 689-698, September.
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