Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving

Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving shows how a simple premise – voters are willing to hold lawmakers accountable for their collective problem-solving abilities – can produce novel insights into legislative organization, behavior, and output. How do issues end up on the agenda? Why do lawmakers routinely invest in program oversight and broad policy development? What considerations drive legislative policy change? Knowing that their prospects for reelection are partly dependent on their collective problem-solving abilities, lawmakers support structures that enhance the legislature's capacity to address problems in society and encourage members to contribute to nonparticularistic policy-making activities. The resulting insights are novel and substantial: Congress' collective performance affects the reelection prospects of incumbents of both parties; the legislative issue agenda can often be predicted years in advance; nearly all important successful legislation originates in committee; most laws pass with bipartisan support; and electorally induced shifts in preferences or partisan control are not robust predictors of policy change. The electoral imperative to address problems in society provides a compelling explanation for these important and provocative findings.

Scott Adler is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a principal investigator of the Congressional Bills Project and the Congressional District Data Project. Among his publications are the books Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System and The Macropolitics of Congress. The former was awarded the Alan Rosenthal Prize from the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association. His research has also appeared in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science and Legislative Studies Quarterly. In 2006–7, Adler was Visiting Professor at the Center for the Study of American Politics and Department of Political Science, Yale University. He received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1988 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1996.

John Wilkerson is the Director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at the University of Washington. He is a principal investigator of the Congressional Bills Project, the Policy Agendas Project and the Comparative Agendas Project. His research has been published by leading scholarly journals including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics and Legislative Studies Quarterly. He teaches American politics and created the award-winning online congressional simulation, LegSim. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1991.