PlumX Metrics
SSRN
Embed PlumX Metrics

Joe Cannon and the Minority Party: Tyranny or Bipartisanship

SSRN Electronic Journal
2004
  • 23
    Citations
  • 1,179
    Usage
  • 0
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    23
    • Citation Indexes
      23
  • Usage
    1,179
    • Abstract Views
      1,100
    • Downloads
      79
  • Ratings
    • Download Rank
      626,541

Article Description

The minority party is rarely featured in empirical research on parties in legislatures, and recent theories of parties in legislatures are rarely neutral and balanced in their treatment of the two parties. This paper makes a case for redressing this imbalance. We identify four characteristics of bipartisanship and evaluate their descriptive merits in a purposely hostile testing ground: during the rise and fall of Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, a.k.a., the Tyrant from Illinois. Drawing on century-old recently discovered records now available in the National Archives, we find that Cannon was anything but a majority-party tyrant during the important committee assignment phase of legislative organization. The findings underscore the need for future, more explicitly theoretical research on parties-in-legislatures.

Bibliographic Details

Provide Feedback

Have ideas for a new metric? Would you like to see something else here?Let us know