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POLITICAL parties, PARTISANSHIP, CITIZENS, IDEOLOGICAL conflict, COLLECTIVE representation, FORTUNE, and IDEOLOGY

While scholars posit an electoral link between congressional approval and majority party electoral fortunes, it is unclear whether citizens are grounding their assessments of approval on policy or valence grounds, such as retrospective economic evaluations. Whereas it is commonly understood that there is an ideological component to constituents' job approval of their individual members of Congress, in addition to a strong partisan effect, the ideological basis of institutional approval has not been established. Using cross-sectional and panel survey data, which allow for scaling citizens and the congressional parties in the same ideological space, I demonstrate that, distinct from the partisan basis of congressional approval, citizens' ideological distance from the majority party has a separate and distinct effect. These results suggest that the link between congressional approval and majority party fortunes is rooted in the collective ideological representation provided by the legislative majority in an increasingly responsible U.S. Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

POLITICAL science, ACTIVISM, PRESIDENTIAL administrations, HISTORICAL analysis, CONTENT analysis, and CHINA-United States relations

The Sino-U.S. relations tumbled during the Trump Administration. The talk of decoupling permeated the decision-making circle in Washington D.C. Many factors have contributed to the free fall. The roles Congress has played are undoubtedly one of them. Based on the new institutionalist approach, this study provides three analyses of recent China-related legislative activities. First, the historical analysis of legislative data illustrates a surge in congressional activism on China-related legislative activities. Second, the content analysis reveals some of the triggers in the deterioration of bilateral relations in recent years. Third, the political analysis of the critical congressional players and the structures and procedures Congress created provides some insight into the domestic and political logic of the congressional crusade against China. Finally, the paper ends with assessing the impact of the surge in Congressional activism on the new Biden Administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FREEDOM of information, PRESIDENTS of the United States, and FREEDOM of Information Act (U.S.)

Congress enacted the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") to ensure that "any person" could gain access to all the executive branch information that could safely be disclosed, without any special showing of need. thereby enhancing the ability of citizens to know what their government is doing. Writing in 1982. then-Professor Antonin Scalia ridiculed the concept of active citizenship which FOIA embodied, asserting that the statute was the product of "an obsession [with the ideal that the first line of defense against an arbitrary executive is do-it-yourself oversight by the public and ... the press. That was a "romantic notion, he thought, because significant disclosures of executive branch information do not ordinarily result from the work of the press or the public, but from the operation of institutionalized checks and balances, that is, through the tug - and-pull between Congress and the President. Four decades later, it seems clear that the choice implicit in Professor Scalia's account is a false one: the health of our representative democracy depends on the vitality of both avenues of access to executive information, and both avenues require shoring up. On the one hand, FOIA has not fully satisfied its proponents' expectations with respect to its "informing function. " meaning its capacity for enhancing the public's knowledge of government and for promoting active citizenship. On the other hand, lessons from the recent past suggest that Professor Scalia's faith in Congress's superior ability to secure information from an uncooperative executive may itself be something of a "romantic notion. " This Article will explore both avenues, the ways in which they have not fulfilled their promise, and how they might be made more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ELECTIONS, PRACTICAL politics, UNITED States presidential election, 2020, and FUNDRAISING

During the last several elections, numerous high-profile candidates for the U.S. Senate have raised a majority of their campaign funds from donors who reside in a different state. These efforts have garnered substantial media coverage and have been fodder for attacks by the candidate's opponents. Despite the increased attention to the role of out-of-state donors, it is not clear if these cases are outliers or if this is now common practice in our more nationalized electoral environment. In this paper, we examine trends in Senate candidate's fundraising from out-of-state donors between 2000 and 2020. We find that there has been a general increase over time in Senate candidates' reliance on out-of-state donations. There is, however, variation in terms of who relies heavily upon the support of a more national donor base. A Senate candidate's share of out-of-state donations varies with factors like incumbency, electoral competition, and geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LEGISLATIVE voting, PARTISANSHIP, ELECTIONS, MODERN history, and UNITED States presidential elections

The election of a new Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress in January 2023 stretched on for several days and 15 roll call votes—the longest contested Speaker election in modern congressional history. This article proves a two-part analysis of this unusual event. First, it reviews the procedural practice of the House for its organization at the beginning of each Congress. Second, it analyzes the operational and strategic conduct of the election, with an eye not only on the individual Members-elect and party factions operating within it, but also on the role of the non-partisan House officers managing the proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GENDER, WOMEN legislators, WOMEN'S rights, VIOLENCE against women, and ABORTION laws

As critical mass theorists have argued, the number of female legislators is important in the enactment of gender-status laws. Female legislators share strong beliefs on women's rights and have easily coordinated their legislative activities on gender issues. In addition, their strong coordination and consequent political influence have often allowed them to form a legislative majority by influencing male legislators. Gender policies, however, are frequently associated with non-gender policy dimensions on which female legislators tend to have different ideas. Thus, when a gender issue is interpreted in terms of a conspicuous non-gender policy dimension, critical mass theory may not work properly; the heterogeneity of female legislators regarding non-gender policy dimensions can weaken their legislative coordination, thereby hampering gender-status lawmaking. This article examines these propositions by reviewing the legislative histories of violence against women and the legality of abortion in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ENVIRONMENTAL policy, UNITED States elections, VOTING, and LEGISLATORS

Do elections affect legislators' voting patterns? We investigate this question in the context of environmental policy in the U.S. Congress. We theorize that since the general public is generally in favor of legislation protecting the environment, legislators have an incentive to favor the public over industry and vote for pro‐environment legislation at election time. The argument is supported by analyses of data on environmental roll call votes for the U.S. Congress from 1970 to 2013 where we estimate the likelihood of casting a pro‐environment vote as a function of the time to an election. While Democrats are generally more likely to cast a pro‐environment vote before an election, this effect is much stronger for Republicans when the legislator won the previous election by a thinner margin. The election effect is maximized for candidates receiving substantial campaign contributions from the (anti‐environment) oil and gas industry. Analysis of Twitter data confirms that Congressmembers make pro‐environmental statements and highlight their roll call voting behavior during the election season. These results show that legislators do strategically adjust their voting behavior to favor the public immediate prior to an election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MODERATES (Political science), PARTISANSHIP, UNITED States legislators, DEMOCRATS (United States), and BIPARTISANSHIP

Passing out federal dollars to specific projects in particular districts had been a popular way for congressional leaders to build large bipartisan majorities for major bills since the very first meeting of Congress. By matching projects to districts, scholars have been able to systematically analyze which members were successful in getting their project funded. But for one year, though, the requests members submitted were never known. Using earmark requests data during the 111th Congress, we can know both the requests and the awards. Knowing the former changes our understanding of the latter. We find that the request process is largely driven by ideology, rather than electoral vulnerability. More moderate Republicans tended to seek more earmarks than their more conservative copartisans; some of whom completely opted out of the process. The effect was the opposite for Democrats, whose moderates requested fewer earmarks. When these requests are taken into consideration, the awarding process appears to be even less partisan than the raw data would suggest, confirming the bipartisan nature of the earmarking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RACE, CAUCUS, LIBERTY, REFORMS, CHANGE theory, BALLOTS, and LEGISLATIVE voting

For the first time in one hundred years, the 118th Congress began with a prolonged Speaker's race that required fifteen ballots to elect a Speaker. The contentious Republican debate displayed a level of personal animosity between a faction – the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) – and the majority party's chosen leader – Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) – but it also revealed a series of significant divisions within the majority party over policy, and legislative norms and practices. How do different strategies shape the capacity of factions to spur formal changes to legislative institutions? How do party leaders respond to the demands of factions that raise issues threatening to party unity and their own leadership position? In this article, I analyze the composition of defectors in the Speaker's race, the status of their rule and procedural reform agenda, and the response by McCarthy, including to committee assignments and early use of restrictive rules in the 118th Congress. I conclude with a discussion of the consequences of the HFC strategy for the contemporary U.S. House, and an emerging need to expand theories of institutional change to better integrate the behavior of both party leaders and factions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIOCULTURAL factors, UNITED States presidential election, 2016, POLITICAL campaigns, and UNITED States politics & government, 2017-2021

Objectives: The political discourse surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted discontent with both Congress and corporations, a reality corroborated in recent scholarship highlighting declines in institutional confidence among U.S. citizens. Here we test theories of institutional confidence to understand the social and cultural determinants of confidence in Congress and corporations prior to the start of the 2016 presidential campaigns. Methods: We draw on data from the Religious Understandings of Science Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted in 2013–2014 (N = 9,416). Results: We find that political ideology largely explained confidence in corporations while social location (particularly racial‐ethnic identity and gender) strongly related to confidence in Congress. Seemingly opposing factors converged to predict trust in both institutions. Conclusions: Institutional confidence is shaped not only by social and cultural factors but also by the symbolic functions of institutions themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRESIDENTS and MARBURY v. Madison

Whether the Constitution grants the President a removal power is a longstanding, far-reaching, and hotly contested question. Based on new materials from the Founding and early practice, we defend the Madisonian view that the “executive power” encompassed authority to remove executive officials at pleasure. This conception prevailed in Congress and described executive branch practice, with Presidents issuing commissions during pleasure and removing executive officers at will. While some Justices and scholars assert that Congress has broad legislative power to curb executive removals, their reading leads to a host of troubles. If, as some argue, Congress can limit the grounds for a presidential removal, what prevents Congress from likewise limiting the grounds for executive pardons, judicial judgments, and impeachment removals? The far-reaching legislative power that some scholars advance cannot be cabined to presidential removals. We also respond to a number of judicial and scholarly critiques, many grounded in claims about early statutes and practices. Though valuable, these critiques misunderstand or ignore certain practices, sources, and key episodes, like the events surrounding Marbury v. Madison. There was a widespread consensus that the President had constitutional power to remove, and early laws did not limit, much less bar, presidential removal of executive officers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOCIAL scientists, POLITICAL scientists, CIVIL service positions, CONGRESSIONAL hearings (U.S.), and RESEARCH institutes

Congressional hearings are a venue in which social scientists present their views and analyses before lawmakers in the United States, however quantitative data on their representation has been lacking. We present new, publicly available, data on the rates at which anthropologists, economists, political scientists, psychologists, and sociologists appeared before United States congressional hearings from 1946 through 2016. We show that social scientists were present at some 10,347 hearings and testified 15,506 times. Economists testify before the US Congress far more often than other social scientists, and constitute a larger proportion of the social scientists testifying in industry and government positions. We find that social scientists' testimony is increasingly on behalf of think tanks; political scientists, in particular, have gained much more representation through think tanks. Sociology, and psychology's representation before Congress has declined considerably beginning in the 1980s. Anthropologists were the least represented. These findings show that academics are representing a more diverse set of organizations, but economists continue to be far more represented than other disciplines before the US Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PARTISANSHIP, ABORTION, PRO-life movement, REPRODUCTIVE rights, GENDER, and WOMEN'S roles

I examine the partisan and gender dynamics that shape Congressional policymaking on abortion since the early 1990s. I demonstrate how the movement of abortion from an issue that split the parties to a litmus test that defines what it means to be a Democrat or Republican has impacted policymaking. I highlight the increasingly central role female lawmakers play in crafting policy and shaping party messaging. Throughout this period, Democratic women are the most aggressive proponents for abortion rights and have expanded their influence over the party's agenda. Meanwhile, Republican women were divided on the issue through the early 2000s and had limited influence on the party's decision making. Since the Tea Party wave of 2010 brought more pro-life women to office, Republican women are pivotal players and will influence the direction of party strategy and legislating in the Post-Roe environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ELECTRONIC markets, INTERNET marketing, ELECTIONS, FORECASTING, FRENCH presidential elections, and UNITED States Congressional elections

ELECTION forecasting, GERRYMANDERING, PARTISANSHIP, POPULAR vote, POLITICAL science, UNITED States presidential election, 2020, and PRESIDENTIAL elections

POLITICAL forecasting, ELECTIONS, FORECASTING, REPUBLICANS, INCUMBENCY (Public officers), and UNITED States presidential election, 2012

HISTORY, RACE discrimination, and INVESTIGATIONS

This article discusses the history of the Metropolitan Music School and how it became a target of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in the 1950s due to its perceived progressive values and commitment to racial inclusion. The article highlights how investigations into the school's leadership, including its president emeritus, Wallingford Riegger, and founder Lilly Popper, were part of HUAC's broader campaign to root out perceived subversive activity in the United States.

PARTISANSHIP, ELECTIONS, POLARIZATION (Social sciences), INCUMBENCY (Public officers), and MOTIVATION (Psychology)

Objective: This article explores whether voters evaluate candidates' ideology, partisanship, and quality independently or exhibit behavior consistent with motivating reasoning, rating co‐partisans and candidates ideologically similar to themselves as more competent. Methods: Using a survey of voters and experts from 2010 U.S. House elections, I estimate a model predicting an individual's rating of incumbent candidate competence for office and challenger candidate competence for office. Results: Individuals ideologically distant from a candidate rate the candidate as less competent, yet rate co‐partisan candidates as more competent. For incumbents, opposing partisanship amplifies the negative effect of ideological distance on candidate quality ratings, and shared partisanship mitigates the negative effect of ideological distance. Conclusion: Only incumbents rated as the most competent can overcome the ideological and partisan biases of voters. Consistent with theories of affective polarization, these results imply that polarization runs deeper than partisan or ideological differences–it is personal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WAR powers, PRESIDENTS, and DECLARATION of war

The article addresses the question of who has the constitutional authority in the U.S. to initiate war or hostilities. It uses historical and textual sources to show that early American leaders intend for Congress to have primacy in determining whether to initiate war or hostilities. It attempts to correctly situate the pure war powers with Congress. Other topics discussed include legislative war powers, evolution of the presidency, and the President as Commander in Chief.

STATE power, ELECTIONS, CONSTITUTIONS, and FEDERAL government

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives provide the most immediate and localized connection between their constituents and the federal government. When those positions are left vacant for extended periods of time, Americans are deprived of an agent to advocate for their interests at the national level. Article I of the Constitution gives state executives authority to set dates for special elections to Congress. In some instances, governors have taken advantage of this nearly unlimited power to deny these seats to their partisan rivals. This Note presents the data from every open seat in the House over twenty-five years and shows that the average vacancy has become substantially longer during that period--almost twice as long on average. This Note then uses the seat in the 20th District of Florida, which was left open for 287 days in 2021 and 2022, as a case study to show the negative impacts of such vacancies. To avoid these increasingly common outcomes, this Note urges the adoption of an upper limit on the length of a vacancy in the House of Representatives. Article I also provides the U.S. Congress with authority to overrule the states and pass laws to regulate the times of congressional elections. Congress should use this power to pass a new law regulating vacancies. Such action is necessary to address potentially severe harms to representative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]