New Majority or Old Minority?: The Impact of the Republicans on Congress

About the Book

The elections of 1998 bear out the thesis of this book: so far, the Republicans in Congress are operating more like an old minority party than the new majority party they've become. Still, Congress has changed under Republican leadership and the Republicans have changed, too. This volume of original essays by leading congressional scholars explores the impact of the Republican majority on Congress with attention to the history of the institution and party characteristics present and future. For students and scholars alike, the new majority of an old minority provides a laboratory for political analysis that demonstrates lasting effects. As Republicans learn to govern, the country will no doubt learn something, too.

Table of Contents:

Part 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 From Revolution to Evolution: Congress under Republican Control
Part 3 New Styles of Party Leadership
Chapter 4 Partisan Imperative and Institutional Constraints: Republican Party Leadership in the House and Senate
Chapter 5 Institutional Context and Leadership: The Case of Newt Gingrich
Part 6 Change and Continuity in Congressional Committees
Chapter 7 Building the Republican Regime: Leaders and Committees
Chapter 8 Learning to Legislate: Committees in the Republican Congress
Part 9 Reforming the Legislative Process
Chapter 10 Procedural Features of House Republican Rule
Chapter 11 Republican Roles in Congressional Budget Reform: Twenty-Five Years of Deficit and Conflict
Part 12 The Congressional Republican Party
Chapter 13 Moderate Success: Majority Status and Factionalism in the House Republican Party
Chapter 14 The House Republicans: Lessons for Political Science

About the Author :

Nicol C. Rae is professor of political science at Florida International University.

Colton C. Campbell is assistant professor of political science at Florida International University.

Review :
The volume . . . examines the results of the change in majority party from the standpoint of new styles in leadership, changes in congressional committees, changes in legislatives processes and procedures, and the effects of majority status on the Republican party. . . . This work will interest all students of the modern-day Congress. . . . Rae and Campbell have assembled a rich commentary on the Congress of the nineties from some of the leading congressionalists. . . . They present a comprehensive analysis of the Republican Revolution and its implications for public policy and institutional norms. If you are teaching a class on Congress in the near future, get Rae and Campbell's highly readable edited volume. It is . . . the best book so far on how Republicans have redirected the legislative and institutional direction of Congress. A dozen of the country’s leading legislative scholars have collaborated here to examine and explain four historic, roller-coaster years of the U.S. Congress under Republican rule. For an up-to-date analysis of how the new majority and the old institution have affected one another, and why, this stimulating and original volume must be read and savored.