Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy > Vol 4 > Issue 3

Fighting for the Speakership: An Update

Jeffery A. Jenkins, Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, USA, jajenkins@usc.edu , Charles Stewart III, Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, cstewart@mit.edu
 
Suggested Citation
Jeffery A. Jenkins and Charles Stewart III (2023), "Fighting for the Speakership: An Update", Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy: Vol. 4: No. 3, pp 431-478. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/113.00000084

Publication Date: 30 Nov 2023
© 2023 J. A. Jenkins and C. Stewart
 
Subjects
Congress,  Elections,  Political economy,  Political history
 
Keywords
SpeakershipHouse of Representativesorganizational cartelballoting
 

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In this article:
The Speakership Election in the 118th Congress 
Whither the Organizational Cartel 
Discussion and Future Research 
References 

Abstract

We update our book, Fighting for the Speakership, ten years after its publication, and discuss how the politics of the past decade have affected the organizational cartel. We first review the speakership election in the 118th Congress – why it took 15 ballots, how it was eventually resolved, and how the organization of the House was affected by the outcome of the speakership race, especially on the Republican side. We then explore the factors that led to the organizational cartel breaking down, focusing on the changing environmental conditions inside and outside of Congress the resulted in the diminishment of committees, the tightening of the procedural cartel, and the weakening of party leaders’ control over members. Finally, we conclude by speculating on what the breakdown of the organizational cartel in the 118th Congress might mean for the institution in succeeding years.

DOI:10.1561/113.00000084