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District inheritance of committee seats in the U.S. House of Representatives 84th thru 100th Congresses
Abstract
Thomas (Tip) O'Neill has been quoted as saying that, "all government is local government." No where is this most true than in congressional committees, which are a microcosm of district-oriented interests. And a major way in which congressional committees are influenced by district interests is through long-term seat control at the district level. This passing of committee assignments from predecessor to successor, labeled district inheritance, has been largely ignored by political scientists. Past congressional committee assignment research has focused on member committee preferences or state delegation influence rather than on why incoming members seek out their predecessors' committee assignments. With new research and a synthesis of old, this study explores the numerous possible reasons for district inheritance of committee assignments in the U.S. House of Representatives. It examines the possible causes and effects of district inheritance: committee type, the role of party leaders and other elites in the committee assignment process, electoral value, geographic occurrence, party influence and policy impact. The study concludes that the U.S. House Representatives as an institution promotes inheritance of predecessors' seats, especially upon constituency-oriented committees and that the occurrence of district inheritance has increased since the congressional reforms of the mid-70s. Individually, incoming congresspersons who win by 75 percent or more inherit their predecessors' committee seats to a higher degree than those who win by less than 75 percent, unless they have defeated that predecessor. The answers are not complete, but some changes have been recognized that will open the doors wider for further research on the impact of district inheritance on legislative policymaking at both the national and state levels. In doing this, we learn more about the workings of the legislative process and the forces that influence its ultimate decisions.
Subject Area
Political science
Recommended Citation
Stubben, Jerry Dale, "District inheritance of committee seats in the U.S. House of Representatives 84th thru 100th Congresses" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9004708.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9004708