Fighting for the speakership [electronic resource] : the House and the rise of party government / Jeffery A. Jenkins, Charles Stewart III.
Jenkins, Jeffery A.; Stewart, Charles Haines.
2013
JK1411 .J45 2013eb
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Title Fighting for the speakership [electronic resource] : the House and the rise of party government / Jeffery A. Jenkins, Charles Stewart III.
Author Jenkins, Jeffery A.
ISBN 9781400845460 (electronic book)
9780691118123
9780691156446
Imprint Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2013.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xvi, 476 p.) : ill.
Call Number JK1411 .J45 2013eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 328.73/0762
Summary The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the most powerful partisan figure in the contemporary U.S. Congress. How this came to be, and how the majority party in the House has made control of the speakership a routine matter, is far from straightforward. Fighting for the Speakership provides a comprehensive history of how Speakers have been elected in the U.S. House since 1789, arguing that the organizational politics of these elections were critical to the construction of mass political parties in America and laid the groundwork for the role they play in setting the agenda of Congress today. Jeffery Jenkins and Charles Stewart show how the speakership began as a relatively weak office, and how votes for Speaker prior to the Civil War often favored regional interests over party loyalty. While struggle, contention, and deadlock over House organization were common in the antebellum era, such instability vanished with the outbreak of war, as the majority party became an "organizational cartel" capable of controlling with certainty the selection of the Speaker and other key House officers. This organizational cartel has survived Gilded Age partisan strife, Progressive Era challenge, and conservative coalition politics to guide speakership elections through the present day. Fighting for the Speakership reveals how struggles over House organization prior to the Civil War were among the most consequential turning points in American political history.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Added Author Stewart, Charles Haines.
Series Princeton studies in American politics.
Available in Other Form Fighting for the speakership.
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Introduction
The evolving roles and responsibilities of House officers in the antebellum era
Organizational politics under the secret ballot
Bringing the selection of House officers into the open
Shoring up partisan control: the speakership elections of 1839 and 1847
Partisan tumult on the floor: the speakership elections of 1849 and 1855-56
The speakership and the rise of the Republican Party
Caucus governance and the rise of the organizational cartel, 1861-1891
The organizational cartel persists, 1891-2011
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Summary of house organization, 1st-112th Congress (1789-2011)
Appendix 2. Election of house speaker, 1st-112th Congresses
Appendix 3. Election of House clerk, 1st-112th Congresses
Appendix 4. Election of House printer, 15th-36th Congresses
Appendix 5. Summary of democratic and Republican speaker caucus nominations, 38th-112th Congresses
Appendix 6. Democratic and Republican caucus nominations for speaker, 38th-112th Congresses.

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