Congress and the American Political System II

The Most Important Congressional Literature

The 25 (or so) most important books in the congressional field (mostly based on citation counts over the past ten years, with some judgment thrown in):

• John H. Aldrich. 2011. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Party Politics in America. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226012728. [Preview with Google Books]
• R. Douglas Arnold. 1990. The Logic of Congressional Action. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780300056594. [Preview with Google Books]
• Bruce E. Cain, John A. Ferejohn, and Morris P. Fiorina. 1987. The Personal Vote: Constituency Service and Electoral Independence. Harvard University Press. ISBN: ‎9780674663176. 
• Charles M. Cameron. 2000. Veto Bargaining: Presidents and the Politics of Negative Power. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521625500. [Preview with Google Books]
• Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins. 1993. Legislative Leviathan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780520072206.
• ———. 2005. Setting the Agenda. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521619967. [Preview with Google Books]
• James M. Curry. 2015. Legislating in the Dark. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226281858. [Preview with Google Books]
• Lawrence Dodd, Bruce I. Oppenheimer, and C. Lawrence Evans, eds. 2020. Congress reconsidered. 12^th ed. CQ Press. ISBN: ‎9781544345017. [Preview with Google Books] (Many editions—keep current with the most recent. Larry Evans has now been added as an editor, to keep the franchise going.)
• Richard F. Fenno. 1973. Congressmen in Committees. Little, Brown.
• ———. 1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts.. Longman Classics. ISBN: ‎9780321121837.
• Gary C. Jacobson, and Samuel Kernell. 1981. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780300026900. 
• Richard L. Hall. 1996. Participation in Congress. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780472088140. [Preview with Google Books]
• Keith Krehbiel. 1992. Information and Legislative Organization. University of Michigan Press. ISBN: ‎9780472064601. [Preview with Google Books]
• ———. 1998. Pivotal Politics. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226452722. [Preview with Google Books]
• Frances E. Lee. 2009. Beyond Ideology. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226470764. [Preview with Google Books]
• ———. 2016. Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226409047. [Preview with Google Books]
• David R. Mayhew. 2004. Congress: The Electoral Connection. 2^nd ed. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780300105872. 
• Hanna Pitkin. 1967. The Concept of Representation. University of California Press. ISBN: 9780520021563. [Preview with Google Books]
• Keith T. Poole. 2005. Spatial Models of Parliamentary Voting. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781139446754. [Preview with Google Books]
• Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 1997. Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. Oxford University Press. ISBN: ‎9780195055771. [Preview with Google Books] (The second, revised edition of this book is titled Ideology and Congress.)
• David W. Rohde. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House of Representatives. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226724072. [Preview with Google Books]

The 10 most important articles that are not associated with these books (mostly based on citation counts, with some judgment thrown in):

• Stephen Ansolabehere, James M. Snyder, Jr., and Charles Stewart III. 2001. “Candidate positioning in U.S. House elections.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 45, pp. 136–59.
• Joseph Bafumi and Michael C. Herron. 2010. “Leapfrog representation and extremism: A study of American voters and their members in Congress.” American Political Science Review, vol. 104, pp. 519–542.
• Steven J. Balla, Eric D. Lawrence, Forrest Maltzman, and Lee Sigelman. 2002. “Partisanship, blame avoidance, and the distribution of legislative pork.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 46, pp. 515–525.
• Brandice Canes-Wrone, David W. Brady, and John F. Cogan. 2002. “Out of step, out of office: Electoral accountability and House members’ voting.” American Political Science Review, vol. 96, pp. 127–140.
• Jamie Carson, et al. 2010. “The electoral costs of party loyalty in Congress.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 54, pp. 598–616.
• Joshua Clinton, Simon Jackman, and Douglas Rivers. 2004. “The statistical analysis of roll call data.” American Political Science Review, vol. 98, pp. 355–370.
• James H. Fowler. 2006. “Connecting the Congress: A study of cosponsorship networks.” Political Analysis, vol. 14, pp. 456–487.
• Mathew D. McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz. 1984. “Congressional oversight overlooked: Police patrols versus fire alarms.” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 28, pp. 165–179.
• Warren Miller and Donald Stokes. 1963. “Constituency influence in Congress.” American Political Science Review, vol. 57, pp. 45–56.
• Barry R. Weingast and William J. Marshall. 1988. “The industrial organization of Congress: Or, why legislatures, like firms, are not organized as markets.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 96, pp. 132–163.

Winners of the Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize from the Legislative Studies Section of the APSA (and some of the competition that didn’t win):

2022

• Christian Dyogi Phillips. 2021. Nowhere to Run: Race, Gender, and Immigration in American Elections. Oxford University Press. ISBN: ‎9780197538944. [Preview with Google Books]

2021

• Beth Reingold, Kerry L. Haynie, and Kirsten Widner. 2021. Race, Gender, & Political Representation: Toward A More Intersectional Approach. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780197502174. [Preview with Google Books]

2020

• Bryan D. Jones, Sean M. Theriault, and Michelle Whyman. 2019. The Great Broadening: How the Vast Expansion of the Policymaking Agenda Transformed American Politics. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226625942. [Preview with Google Books]

2019

• C. Lawrence Evans. 2018. The Whips: Building Party Coalitions in Congress. University of Michigan Press. ISBN: 9780472123872. [Preview with Google Books]

2018

• Sarah A. Binder and Mark Spindel. 2017. The Myth of Independence: How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691163192. [Preview with Google Books]

2017

• Douglas Kriner and Eric Schickler. 2016. Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power. Princeton University Press. [Preview with Google Books]

2016

• Sven-Oliver Proksch and Jonathan B. Slapin. 2015. The Politics of Parliamentary Debate: Parties, Rebels and Representation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107072763. [Preview with Google Books]

2015

• Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman. 2014. Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Congress: The Lawmakers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521152266. [Preview with Google Books]

2014

• Justin Grimmer. 2013. Representational Style in Congress: What Legislators Say and Why It Matters. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107470514. [Preview with Google Books]

2013

• Lynda Powell. 2012. The Influence of Campaign Contributions in State Legislatures. ISBN: 9780472028276. University of Michigan Press. [Preview with Google Books]

2012 

• Lanny Martin and Georg Vanberg. 2011. Parliaments and Coalitions: The Role of Legislative Institutions in Multiparty Governance. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199607884. [Preview with Google Books]

2011

• Gregory Koger. 2010. Filibustering: A Political History of Obstruction in the House and Senate. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226449654. [Preview with Google Books]

2010

• Frances E. Lee. 2009. Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226470764. [Preview with Google Books]

2009 

• Damon C. Cann. 2008. Sharing the Wealth: Member Contributions and the Exchange Theory of Party Influence in the U.S. House of Representatives. SUNY Press. ISBN: 9780791478103. [Preview with Google Books]

2008 

• Simon Hix, Abdul G. Noury, and Gerard Roland. 2007. Democratic Politics in the European Parliament. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781139464796. [Preview with Google Books]

2007

• Gregory J. Wawro and Eric Schickler. 2006. Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691125091. [Preview with Google Books]

2006

• Tracy Sulkin. 2005. Issue Politics in Congress. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781139448611. [Preview with Google Books]
• Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins. 2005. Setting the Agenda. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521619967. [Preview with Google Books]

2005

• Diana Evans. 2004. Greasing the Wheels: Using Pork Barrel Projects to Build Majority Coalitions in Congress. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521545327. [Preview with Google Books]

2004

• Sarah A. Binder. 2003. Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN: 9780815709114. [Preview with Google Books] 

2003

• John D. Huber and Charles R. Shipan. 2002. Deliberate Discretion? The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521520706. [Preview with Google Books]

2002

• Eric Schickler. 2001. Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and Development of the U.S. Congress. Princeton University Press. ISBN: ‎9780691049267. [Preview with Google Books]

2001

• Charles M. Cameron. 2000. Veto Bargaining: Presidents and the Politics of Negative Power. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521625500. [Preview with Google Books]

2000

• David T. Canon. 1999. Race, Redistricting and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226092713. 

1999

• Keith Krehbiel. 1998. Pivotal Politics: A Theory of U.S. Lawmaking. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226452722. [Preview with Google Books]

1998

No selection

• Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 1997. Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. Oxford University Press. ISBN: ‎9780195055771. [Preview with Google Books] 

1997

• Richard L. Hall. 1996. Participation in Congress. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780472088140. [Preview with Google Books]

1996

No selection

• John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse. 1995. Congress as Public Enemy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521483360. 
• Barbara Sinclair. 1998. Legislators, Leaders, and Lawmaking: The U.S. House of Representatives in the Postreform Era. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN: ‎9780801857126. [Preview with Google Books]

1995

• Chandler Davidson and Bernard Grofman. 1994. Quiet Revolution in the South. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691021089. [Preview with Google Books]

1994

• Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins. 1993. Legislative Leviathan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: ‎9780521694094. [Preview with Google Books]
• Carol Swain. 1993. Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress. Harvard University Press. ISBN: ‎9780674076150. 

1993

• Frank Sorauf. 1992. Inside Campaign Finance. Yale University Press. ISBN: 9780300157550. 

1992

• Keith Krehbiel. 1992. Information and Legislative Organization. University of Michigan Press. ISBN: ‎9780472064601. [Preview with Google Books]
• D. Roderick Kiewiet and Mathew D. McCubbins. 1991. The Logic of Delegation. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226435312. [Preview with Google Books]
• David Mayhew. 1991. Divided We Govern: Party Control, Lawmaking, and Investigations, 1946–1990. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780300048353.
• David W. Rohde. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House of Representatives. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: ‎9780226724072. [Preview with Google Books]

1991

• R. Douglas Arnold. 1990. The Logic of Congressional Action. Yale University Press. ISBN: ‎9780300056594. [Preview with Google Books]
• Jon R. Bond. 1990. The President in the Legislative Arena. Chicago University Press. ISBN: 9780226064109. [Preview with Google Books]
• David T. Canon. 1990. Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226092683. [Preview with Google Books]
• Gary C. Jacobson. 1990. The Electoral Origins of Divided Government. Avalon Publishing. ISBN: 978081330906. 

1990

• Barbara Sinclair. 1989. The Transformation of the U.S. Senate. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN: 9780801837661.
• Steven S. Smith. 1989. Call to Order: Floor Politics in the House and Senate. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN: ‎9780815780144.

1989

No selection

• David W. Brady. 1988. Critical Elections and Congressional Policy Making. Stanford University Press. ISBN: 9780804718400. [Preview with Google Books]

1988

• Bruce E. Cain, John A. Ferejohn, and Morris P. Fiorina. 1987. The Personal Vote: Constituency Service and Electoral Independence. Harvard University Press. ISBN: ‎9780674663176.
• Gary C. Jacobson. 1987. The Politics of Congressional Elections. Little, Brown. ISBN: 9780316455640.

The 25 most-cited articles (on a per-year basis) in Legislative Studies Quarterly since 1973:

• Stephen Ansolabehere, James M. Snyder, and Charles Stewart III. 2001. “The effects of party and preferences on congressional roll-call voting.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 26, pp. 533–572.
• Lisa Baldez. 2004. “Elected bodies: The Gender Quota Law for legislative candidates in Mexico.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 29: 231–258.
• Tiffany D. Barnes, Victoria D. Beall, and Mirya R. Holman. 2021. “Pink-collar representation and budgetary outcomes in US states.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 46: 119–154.
• David W. Brady, Hahrie Han, and Jeremy C. Pope. 2007. “Primary elections and candidate ideology: Out of step with the primary electorate?” Legislative Studies Quarterly 32: 79–105.
• David E. Broockman. 2016. “Approaches to studying policy representation.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 41, pp. 181–215.
• John M. Carey, Richard G. Niemi, Lynda W. Powell, and Gary F. Moncrief. 2006. “The effects of term limits on state legislatures: A new survey of the 50 states.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 31: 105–134.
• Nicholas Carnes. 2012. “Does the numerical underrepresentation of the working class in Congress matter?” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 37, pp. 5–34.
• Clifford Carrubba, Matthew Gabel, and Simon Hug. 2008. “Legislative voting behavior, seen and unseen: A theory of roll-call vote selection.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 33, pp. 543–572.
• Simon Hix and Abdul Noury. 2009. “After enlargement: Voting patterns in the sixth European Parliament.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 34: 159–174.
• Mirya Holman and Anna Mahoney. 2018. “Stop, collaborate, and listen: Women’s collaboration in US state legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 43: 179–206.
• Jonathan Homola. 2022. “The effects of women’s descriptive representation on government behavior.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 47: 295–308.
• William Howell, Scott Adler, Charles Cameron, and Charles Riemann. 2000. “Divided government and the legislative productivity of Congress, 1945–94.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 25, pp. 285–312.
• Gregory Koger. 2003. “Position-taking and cosponsorship in the U.S House.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 28, pp. 225–246.
• Steven D. Levitt and Catherine D. Wolfram. 1997. “Decomposing the sources of incumbency advantage in the U.S House.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 22, pp. 45–60.
• Will Lowe, Kenneth Benoit, Slava Mikhaylov, and Michael Laver. 2011. “Scaling policy preferences from coded political texts.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, pp. 123– 55.
• Richard E. Matland. 1998. “Women’s representation in national legislatures: Developed and developing countries.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 23: 109–125.
• David R. Miller. 2022. “On whose door to knock? Organized interests’ strategic pursuit of access to members of Congress.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 47: 157–192.
• Terry M. Moe. 1987. “An assessment of the positive theory of ‘congressional dominance’.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 28, pp. 475–520.
• Sven-Oliver Proksch, Will Lowe, Jens Waeckerle, and Stuart Soroka. 2019. “Multilingual sentiment analysis: A new approach to measuring conflict in legislative speeches.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 44: 97–131.
• Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer. 2009. “Making quotas work: The effect of gender quota laws on the election of women.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 34: 5–28.
• Peverill Squire. 1992. “Legislative professionalization and membership diversity in state legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 17: 69–79.
• Michele L. Swers. 1998. “Are women more likely to vote for women’s issue bills than their male colleagues?” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 23, pp. 435–448.
• Danielle M. Thomsen. 2015. “Why so few (Republican) women? Explaining the partisan imbalance of women in the U.S. Congress.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 40, pp. 295–323.
• Jessica Troustine. 2011. “Evidence of a local incumbency advantage.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 36: 255–280.
• Thomas Zittel, Dominic Nyhuis, and Markus Baumann. 2019. “Geographic representation in party-dominated legislatures: a quantitative text analysis of parliamentary questions in the German Bundestag.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 44: 681–711.