Congressional Caucuses and Congressional Committees: A Commentary on Vega

Authors

  • Thomas Longoria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1993.14.0.381-386

Abstract

This comment on Vega’s article, “Congressional Informal Groups as Representative Responsiveness,” discusses where Vega’s work fits into the congressional caucus literature, and suggests directions for future research on such caucuses. Vega’s work is motivated by an important theory that guides sound empirical analysis. The study is an important break from earlier work because of his use of representation theory to develop the representative responsive-ness framework. Outlining the different strategies used by congressional caucuses to accomplish representational goals expands our understanding of congressional caucuses considerably. The case-study analysis is especially valuable and supports the factor analysis findings.

References

Barnett, Marguerite Ross. 1977. The Congressional Black Caucus: Symbol, Myth, and Reality. The Black Scholar 8: 17-26.

Dilger, Robert Jay. 1982. The Sunbelt/Snowbelt Controversy: The War Over Federal Funds. New York: New York University Press.

Hall, Richard L. and Frank Wayman. 1990. Buying Time: Moneyed Interests and the Mobilization of Bias in Congressional Committees. American Political Science Review 84: 797-820.

Hammond, Susan Webb, Daniel P. Mulhollan, and Arthur G. Stevens, Jr. 1985. Informal Congressional Caucuses and Agenda Setting. Western Political Quarterly 38: 583-605.

Levy, Arthur B. and Susan Stoudinger. 1976. Sources of Voting Cues for the Congressional Black Caucus. Journal of Black Studies 7: 29-45.

Loomis, Burdett A. 1981. Congressional Caucuses and the Politics of Representation. In Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds., Congress Reconsidered. Washington, DC: Congres-sional Quarterly Press.

Vega, Arturo. 1993. Congressional Informal Groups as Representative Responsiveness. American Review of Politics 14: 355-373.

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Published

1993-11-01

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Section

Articles