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Who Should Govern Congress? Access to Power and the Salary Grab of 1873

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  • Lee J. Alston
  • Jeffery A. Jenkins
  • Tomas Nonnenmacher

Abstract

We examine the politics of the "Salary Grab" of 1873, legislation that increased congressional salaries retroactively by 50 percent. A group of New England and Midwestern elites opposed the Salary Grab, along with congressional franking and patronage-based civil service appointments, as part of reform effort to reshape "who should govern Congress." Our analyses of congressional voting confirm the existence of this non-party elite coalition. While these elites lost many legislative battles in the short-run, their efforts kept reform on the legislative agenda throughout the late-nineteenth century and ultimately set the stage for the Progressive movement in the early-twentieth century.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee J. Alston & Jeffery A. Jenkins & Tomas Nonnenmacher, 2005. "Who Should Govern Congress? Access to Power and the Salary Grab of 1873," NBER Working Papers 11908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11908
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    Cited by:

    1. Karsten Mause, 2014. "Self-serving legislators? An analysis of the salary-setting institutions of 27 EU parliaments," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 154-176, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • N41 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913

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