"Delegates Fresh from the People": American Congressional and Legislative Behavior

The State and Practice of American Political History at the Millennium: The Nineteenth Century as a Test Case

“…Its study is a very useful place to start explorations of the political world, partly because public policy was relatively ignored by political historians for too long a time, and partly because it is a very effective way of bringing together a welter of societal forces with the formal political system in a manner that illuminates the interaction between them, and advances our understanding of some of the underlying energies driving American society as a whole. 39 But in recent years such studies have slowed to a crawl, with few new ones appearing, or even on the scholarly horizon. Nevertheless, as has become increasingly clear, it was also a time when a great many demands were beginning to be made on the political system due to the reform and egalitarian principles at play in the society, from abolition, Indian, and women's rights demands to labor advocacy, all adding up to significant social pressures on the governing system, pressures intensified by the demands of the Civil War.…”

The Congress as Research Arena: An Uneasy Partnership between History and Political Science: A Review Essay

“…According to Silbey (1983), "systematic quantitative research in congressional and state legislative history has the same virtues as similar research in other areas: the ability to examine the behavior of large masses of individuals with great precision and to uncover insights and relationships hitherto unknown or only partially understood. According to Silbey (1983), "systematic quantitative research in congressional and state legislative history has the same virtues as similar research in other areas: the ability to examine the behavior of large masses of individuals with great precision and to uncover insights and relationships hitherto unknown or only partially understood.…”