Fighting for the speakership : the House and the rise of party government / Jeffery A. Jenkins, Charles Stewart III.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jenkins, Jeffery A.

Contributor:

Stewart, Charles Haines.

Series:

Princeton studies in American politics.

Princeton studies in American politics : Historical, international, and comparative perspectives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political parties--United States--History.

Political parties.

United States. Congress. House--Speakers--History.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (497 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the most powerful partisan figure in the contemporary U.S. Congress. How this came to be, and how the majority party in the House has made control of the speakership a routine matter, is far from straightforward. Fighting for the Speakership provides a comprehensive history of how Speakers have been elected in the U.S. House since 1789, arguing that the organizational politics of these elections were critical to the construction of mass political parties in America and laid the groundwork for the role they play in setting the agenda of Congress today. Jeffery Jenkins and Charles Stewart show how the speakership began as a relatively weak office, and how votes for Speaker prior to the Civil War often favored regional interests over party loyalty. While struggle, contention, and deadlock over House organization were common in the antebellum era, such instability vanished with the outbreak of war, as the majority party became an "organizational cartel" capable of controlling with certainty the selection of the Speaker and other key House officers. This organizational cartel has survived Gilded Age partisan strife, Progressive Era challenge, and conservative coalition politics to guide speakership elections through the present day. Fighting for the Speakership reveals how struggles over House organization prior to the Civil War were among the most consequential turning points in American political history.

Contents:

Introduction

The evolving roles and responsibilities of House officers in the antebellum era

Organizational politics under the secret ballot

Bringing the selection of House officers into the open

Shoring up partisan control: the speakership elections of 1839 and 1847

Partisan tumult on the floor: the speakership elections of 1849 and 1855-56

The speakership and the rise of the Republican Party

Caucus governance and the rise of the organizational cartel, 1861-1891

The organizational cartel persists, 1891-2011

Conclusion

Appendix 1. Summary of house organization, 1st-112th Congress (1789-2011)

Appendix 2. Election of house speaker, 1st-112th Congresses

Appendix 3. Election of House clerk, 1st-112th Congresses

Appendix 4. Election of House printer, 15th-36th Congresses

Appendix 5. Summary of democratic and Republican speaker caucus nominations, 38th-112th Congresses

Appendix 6. Democratic and Republican caucus nominations for speaker, 38th-112th Congresses.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781283656771

1283656779

9781400845460

1400845467

OCLC:

845246778