The Deinstitutionalization (?) of the House of Representatives: Reflections on Nelson Polsby's “The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives” at Fifty
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polsby-29u5nwo.pdf
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Submitted version
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673.52 KB
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866aae7cfc472044962e81589c009e2c
Author(s)
Jenkins, Jeffery A.
Stewart III, Charles H
Date Issued
2018
Journal
Studies in American Political Development
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
© 2018 Cambridge University Press. This article revisits Nelson Polsby's classic article The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives fifty years after its publication, to examine whether the empirical trends that Polsby identified have continued. This empirical exploration allows us to place Polsby's findings in broader historical context and to assess whether the House has continued along the institutionalization course-using metrics that quantify the degree to which the House has erected impermeable boundaries with other institutions, created a complex institution, and adopted universalistic decision-making criteria. We empirically document that careerism plateaued right at the point Polsby wrote Institutionalization, and that the extension of the careerism trend has affected Democrats more than Republicans. The House remains complex, but lateral movement between the committee and party leadership systems began to reestablish itself a decade after Institutionalization was published. Finally, the seniority system as a mechanism for selecting committee chairs-the primary measure of universalistic decision-making criteria-has been almost thoroughly demolished. Thus, most of the trends Polsby identified have moderated, but have not been overturned. We conclude by considering the larger set of interpretive issues that our empirical investigation poses.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898588X18000093
