Congress and Policy Change

Congress and Policy Change offers a clear, timely look at how the U.S. Congress actually makes—and resists—significant shifts in public policy. Edited by Gerald C. Wright, Jr., Leroy N. Rieselbach, and Lawrence C. Dodd, this volume brings together leading congressional scholars to explain why some ideas become law while others stall, and how elections, leadership, rules, and member behavior shape those outcomes.

The book opens with Lawrence Dodd’s member-centered perspective on Congress, building from the basic goals of individual legislators—reelection, policy influence, and power—to show how those goals interact with institutional rules and norms to produce particular policy outcomes. Subsequent chapters track how electoral forces drive change. David W. Brady examines electoral realignments and their impact on congressional action, while Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson trace the transformation of civil rights politics in Congress after World War II, explaining how and why the parties came to adopt sharply different racial positions.

Gerald C. Wright then assesses the modern incumbency advantage and demonstrates how increasingly secure House members can dampen Congress’s responsiveness to voter sentiment and slow policy change. Richard F. Fenno, Jr. provides an inside view of “adjusting to the Senate,” following new senators through the fraught transition from campaigners to legislators and showing how they learn to navigate a highly individualistic chamber where each member can obstruct or advance legislation in distinctive ways.

Marjorie Hershey focuses on “campaign learning” as a bridge between elections and policy behavior, arguing that candidates’ experiences with voters, activists, and interest groups during campaigns strongly color the issues they prioritize and the strategies they adopt once in office. On the institutional side, Barbara Sinclair details how House party leaders use tools like expanded whip systems, task forces, and the Rules Committee to build and maintain winning coalitions in a fragmented, postreform House, while Roberta Herzberg explains the many procedural devices—blocking coalitions, rules, and norms—that protect the status quo.

John Ferejohn’s case study of food stamp legislation highlights how logrolling and coalition-building work in practice, revealing how targeted benefits and cross-issue bargains can produce major social policy. In the concluding chapter, Leroy Rieselbach ties these threads together, laying out when Congress is most likely to break from incrementalism and enact major change.

Ideal for students, scholars, and practitioners, Congress and Policy Change offers a rich, concrete account of how electoral dynamics, institutional design, and political leadership combine to shape the direction and pace of American public policy.