Bulletin n. 2/2016
December 2016
INDICE
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
  • Brady Michael C, Lee Daniel
    Another tool in the party toolbox? Tracing the strategic expansion of committee size in the US House, 1947–2010
    in Party Politics , Volume 22, Issue 6, November ,  2016 ,  784-796
    We consider whether the manipulation of committee sizes can serve as a strategic tool of the majority party to further its influence over policy outcomes in the US House. Previous research notes the influence of the majority party’s preferences on the composition of committees but takes the size of committees as exogenous. We argue that the determination of sizes is an important first step and potential tool to shape committee composition, given vacancy constraints like the property rights norm. Using assignment and revealed legislator ideology data from the 80th to 111th Congresses, our results support this view of strategic expansion as a majority party strategy particularly for “prestige committees,” which are most central to a party’s agenda. Expansion indeed results in committees that are ideologically closer to the majority caucus median. Full text available online at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1354068814563973
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