House Party Switchers and Committee Assignments: Who Gets �What, When, How?�

• Autores: Antoine Yoshinaka
• Localización: Legislative studies quarterly, ISSN 0362-9805, Vol. 30, N. 3, 2005, págs. 391-406
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • What are the political consequences for members of Congress who switch parties? Roll-call and electoral consequences of congressional party switching have been studied, but other implications of party defections have yet to be systematically explored. In this article, I examine the committee assignments of House party switchers and argue that party leaders seek to reward members of the opposing party who join their ranks. Using committee assignment data from the 94th House (1975�76) through the 107th House (2001�02), I show that party switchers are more likely than nonswitchers to be the beneficiaries of violations of the seniority norm. The findings from this article are of interest to students of political parties and legislative institutions, and fill a gap in the literature on party switching.

    When you joined the Republican Conference on August 6, 1995, the elected leadership �determined that your accumulated seniority in the Congress would be credited when you joined the Republican Conference�. Therefore, the Republican Steering Committee's Seniority List ranks you nineteenth in overall conference seniority and designates May 22, 1980, as the beginning of your tenure in the House for purposes of Republican seniority.