Studying Changes in the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives: Electorial Forces and Majority Control

这个项目调查了美国众议院立法程序规则的变化与选举环境之间的关系。国会规则变化的起源具有重要的理论意义。许多对国会的研究记录了众议院规则的历史性变化，而另一些研究则建立了理论模型，说明为什么制度规则对众议院政策结果的确定具有独立的影响。此外，在国会层面上，研究美国政党的学者认为，政党的变化是对美国议程变化的回应。该项目探索和测试了选民的变化在多大程度上也导致了众议院规则的变化，以应对不断变化的选举需求。具体而言，该项目检验了选举影响与体制变革之间的下列关系：在组成两个主要政党的联盟发生迅速和重大的变化之后，在分裂他们并主导政治的问题上，不会直接发生重大的规则变化。要验证这一假设，就需要建立一个数据库，记录美国众议院拟议的规则修改。该项目的一个主要成果将是建立一个数据库，记录从第一届到第一百届国会期间众议院规则的拟议变更。众议院中政党的规模和凝聚力的数据将不会被收集，因为这些数据可以在其他地方获得。主要数据来源是每届国会的《众议院会刊》。第十六届至第一百届大会期刊可在首席研究员的主办机构获得。收集到的数据将被密歇根大学的校际政治和社会研究联盟存档。这一数据库将有助于进一步的研究，从而大大提高我们对这一主题的理解。

This project investigates the relationship between changes in the rules of legislative procedure of the U.S. House of Representatives and the electoral environment. The genesis of rules changes in the Congress is of significant theoretical interest. Many studies of Congress have chronicled the occurrence of historic rules changes in the House while others have created theoretical models of why institutional rules have an independent effect on the determination of policy outcomes within the chamber. In addition, students of American political parties, at the congressional level, have argued that party change was responsive to changes in the American agenda. This project explores and tests the degree to which the changes in the electorate also caused changes in the rules of the House as a response to changing electoral demands. Specifically, the project tests the following relationship between electoral influences and institutional change: major rules changes will not occur directly after rapid and major alterations take place in the coalitions that make up the two major political parties and in the issues that divide them and dominate politics. Testing this hypothesis requires the creation of a database on proposed rules changes in the U.S. House. A major product of the project will be the creation of a database concerning proposed changes of the rules in the House from the First through the One Hundredth Congress. Data will not be collected on the size and cohesion of the political parties in the House since that is available elsewhere. The primary data source is the Journal of the House of Representatives for each session of Congress. The Journals for the Sixteenth through the Hundredth Congress are available at the host institution of the Principal Investigator. The data collected will be archived with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. This database should enable further research which will enhance substantially our understanding of the topic.