A Lab Experiment on Committee Hearings: Preferences, Power, and a Quest for Information

Abstract

In principle, committees hold hearings to gather and provide information to their principals, but some hearings are characterized as political showcases. This article investigates conditions that moderate committee members' incentives to hold an informative hearing by presenting a game‐theoretic model and a lab experiment. Specifically, it studies when committees hold hearings and which types of hearing they hold by varying policy preferences of committee members and the principal and political gains from posturing. Findings provide new insights to how preferences and power distribution affect individuals' incentives to be informed when they make decisions as members of a committee in many contexts.

When Do Politicians Grandstand? Measuring Message Politics in Committee Hearings

“…Once a committee member decides to participate and talk in a hearing, I assume that he can utilize his chance to talk in two different ways to maximize the odds of reelection: One is to ask witnesses for policy relevant information and have constructive discussion on a policy issue with an intention to make a policy benefiting his constituents; the other is to give a political statement with an intention to take positions on policies along with his supporters and even give them a guidance of how to view -in other words, frame-an issue, a party or the President and his administration, which can be further used to formulate campaign messages (Park 2017). 2 Note 1 From "Life in Congress: The Member Perspective" which is a report produced by the Congressional Management Foundation and the Society for Human Resource Management.…”

“…While congressional committee hearings are designed to collect and transmit policy relevant information to the floor (Krehbiel 1992), committee members sometimes use hearings as opportunities to send political messages by taking positions on policy issues or framing the image of a party or the administration (DeGregorio 1992;Del Sesto 1980;Esterling 2004;Farnsworth 1961;Huitt 1954;Park 2017), a set of behaviors I refer to collectively as "grandstanding." When members grandstand in hearings, would the statements they make merely be spontaneous reactions to witnesses' testimonies, or would there be any systematic reason for them to do so?…”

“…Extant literature finds that members tend to grandstand and promote their predetermined views in hearings when committee members' policy preferences are polarized (Huitt 1954;Park 2017) or when political benefits of grandstanding is likely to be largee.g. when the issue is salient (DeGregorio 1992;Park 2017).…”

“…Extant literature finds that members tend to grandstand and promote their predetermined views in hearings when committee members' policy preferences are polarized (Huitt 1954;Park 2017) or when political benefits of grandstanding is likely to be largee.g. when the issue is salient (DeGregorio 1992;Park 2017). Although not directly referring to committee hearings, Fenno (1973) argues that while conducting committee activities members can achieve their reelection goals by taking positions in a way to represent and protect their constituents' interests.…”

Structured-Induced Deference or Equal and Coordinate Actor: Congressional Influence on American Foreign Policy

“…Congressional scholars have long recognized that Congress has tools at its disposal to challenge the executive. Popular strategies, such as conducting oversight hearings (Aberbach, 1991;Kriner & Schickler, 2014;McCubbins & Schwartz, 1984;Park, 2017;Parker & Dull, 2009), placing holds on presidential appointments (Epstein & Segal, 2007;Krutz, Fleisher, & Bond, 1998;Shipan & Shannon, 2003;Tulis, 1997), passing new legislation to restrict executive discretion (Sundquist, 1981), and, of course, impeachment (Tulis, 2009), can shift the pendulum back toward Congress. In addition to these tools, two areas where Congress can challenge the president on foreign policy are through appropriations and domestic treaty legislation.…”