Committee Jurisdiction and Internet Intellectual Property Protection
Name
defigueiredo_0502.pdf
Size
314.92 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
49fe94420a32378c59c38ce7797e1e86
Author(s)
deFigueiredo, John
Date Issued
July 22, 2002
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of increasingly common congressional committee jurisdictional
turf wars on policy outcomes. It develops a theoretical model that shows how legislators balance
the benefits of expanded committee jurisdiction against preferred policy outcomes, yielding
predictions that are different from the traditional committee-dominance theories. The theory
predicts that a) senior members, and members who are in safe districts are most likely to challenge
another committee's jurisdiction; b) policy proposals may be initiated off the proposer's ideal
point in order to obtain jurisdiction over an issue; c) in many cases, policy outcomes will be more
moderate with jurisdictional fights than they would be without these turf wars. The paper tests the
implications of the theory examining proposed Internet intellectual property protection legislation
to reform electronic database law in the 106th Congress.
Subjects
Internet protection
committee dominance
intellectual property
policy outcomes
106th Congress
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