The State Delegations and the Structure of Party Voting in the United States House of Representatives

1956 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1023-1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Truman

Recent controversies over the degree of responsibility displayed by American parties have underscored at least one feature of voting in the Congress. Whatever the merits of the contending interpretations and demands, the facts adduced on both sides suggest relatively fluid, unstructured voting patterns, especially in the House of Representatives. Although the party label is clearly the single most reliable indicator of congressional voting behavior, it is admittedly somewhat less than perfect. The individual Representative may fairly often dissent from the views of most of his party colleagues, not only on matters of local or minor significance but also on issues of national or even global import.The Representative's “independence” is most commonly, and in a good many instances accurately, ascribed to peculiarities of his constituency which generate demands for a non-conforming vote or, perhaps more frequently, are expected to be the source of recriminations and penalities if he does not display independence of his party colleagues on certain types of issues. But the Member of Congress is by no means always able to predict the electoral consequences of his choices even though he is sure that they may produce repercussions in his district.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 918-919
Author(s):  
AIMS C. MCGUINNESS

I certainly agree with Dr. Dietrich that Asian influenza thus far has been a mild disease and not too serious a problem for the individual. Dr. Burney has pointed this out on a number of occasions, as, for example, in his remarks before the State and Territorial Health Officers on August 27. I agree, too, that the availability of antibiotics to deal with secondary bacterial infections should, to a great extent, minimize the severity of any epidemic in the United States.


1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN R. HIBBING

This is an analysis of the effects of economic factors on voting behavior in the United Kingdom. Aggregate- and individual-level data are used. When the results are compared to findings generated by the United States case, some intriguing differences appear. To mention just two examples, unemployment and inflation seem to be much more important in the United Kingdom than in the United States, and changes in real per capita income are positively related to election results in the United States and negatively related in the United Kingdom. More generally, while the aggregate results are strong and the individual-level results weak in the United States, in the United Kingdom the situation is practically reversed.


1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel C. Patterson ◽  
Gregory A. Caldeira

By the standard of most European parliaments, levels of party voting in the United States Congress are relatively low. Nevertheless, party voting does occur in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the American context, a party vote occurs when majorities of the two congressional parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, oppose one another. The authors construct measurements of levels of party voting in Congress in the years after the Second World War. They then develop a model to test the effects of a number of independent variables that influence fluctuations in party voting levels over time. The study models the time series for party voting and demonstrates striking differences between the House and Senate in the correlates of partisan cleavage.


1974 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Potchebutzky

Sec. 42 of the Interpretation Ordinance [New Version] provides that: “Save as may be otherwise expressly provided therein, no enactment shall affect any right of, or impose any obligation upon, the State.”It is generally accepted that the source of the section lies in the traditional supremacy of the English Crown. Since the Crown is the lawmaker it cannot be fettered by the laws it makes unless there is express provision to that effect. On the other hand where laws confer rights upon the Crown, a contrary rule sometimes operates that a statute is to be interpreted in favour of the Crown, since in enacting it the King's subjects act as grantors of rights and the rule against derogation from grant takes effect. In point of logic, however, even without express provision there is nothing to prevent a lawgiver from placing restrictions upon himself.In Jewish thought indeed although the law emanates from the Almighty, who is indeniably Supreme Authority—”the King of Kings”—it is deemed to apply even to Him.It is surprising therefore to note that even in the United States, that model of democracy where the rights of the individual are so protected, the English approach has been adopted and extended to every government body even in the area of private law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
Igor A. Arsenyev

Introduction. The article examines the issues of legal personality related to human rights in international and national law and whether these relations are limited by the interaction of the state and the individual.Since 2016 the United States has been investigating alleged Russian meddling in the US election, which, in addition to hacker attacks, might have been carried out through social networks and services owned by the American multinational corporations – Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. Discussions in the Senate shed light on the business activities of the companies themselves which had an opportunity to manipulate and most likely manipulated the public consciousness, which is a violation of the basic human rights to freedom of choice, freedom of the media and others. At the same time this activity occurred with the alleged observance of legislation and contract law.The article discusses various aspects of the activities of Google and Facebook during a number of American electoral campaigns as evidence of corporate human rights violations.Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study comprises general scientific (analysis, analogy, comparison) and special methods of researching legal phenomena and processes (method of interpretation of legal norms, technical-legal, formal-legal and formal-logical methods).The results of the study. Nowadays Corporations have reached a level of influence comparable to that of the states. But if for economists or political scientists there is no question of including companies in the legal personality structure, lawyers still have doubts. The analysis shows that the traditional approach to human rights as a relationship exclusively between the state and the individual does not fully meet modern realities. The person of legal relations is a participant in interaction regulated by the rules of law. The electoral campaigns in the United States in recent years show that large transnational corporations are able to violate the fundamental rights of the person enshrined in the constitution while observing secondary norms designed to ensure their implementation as well as contract law concerning user agreements.Discussion and conclusions. The necessity of considering human rights in the system of relations “state corporation – physical individual” was substantiated. The conclusion is made that corporations are a threat to the observance of human rights. The topicality of researching the American experience regarding Internet companies influencing the electoral processes in Russia was shown.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 445-460
Author(s):  
Christopher L. Markwood ◽  
Michael R. Malaby

The integrity of the individual states as components of the United States" system of federalism depends upon effective representation of the states interests at the national level. The states’ delegations to the U.S. Senate are of prime importance in this capacity, especially when deciding between federal authority and state discretion. We find that the votes of state delegations to the 101st U.S. Senate on issues of federalism can be broken into four conceptual areas, and that the effectiveness of the representation of state federalism interests depends upon the specific federalism concept under consideration.


1901 ◽  
Vol 47 (198) ◽  
pp. 632-632

It is well known that a heavy burden has been imposed upon the United States of America by the immigration of persons already insane. A Bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives, after a full inquiry, to amend the immigration laws in this respect. Briefly, it proposes that aliens should be excluded if previously, within ten years, confined in any asylum for the insane, idiotic or epileptic, or if they have so suffered before landing in the United States, or if so affected within two years after admission, unless disorder is shown to have been due to causes arising after arrival. Certificates will be required from immigrants, and these must be granted by a local physician of experience in mental diseases whose reputation is vouched for by the local Consul, and must show whether the alien has been insane, etc. The Bill further provides for the return of aliens to their respective countries should they be undesirable immigrants for the reasons indicated. It was shown in the evidence that by the census of 1890 the foreign population of the State of New York constituted 25 per cent. of the whole, whereas the foreign population in the New York State Asylums was 50 per cent. of the whole. These and similar facts have long been recognised as vital to American interests, and it is by no means surprising that an effort is now being made to relieve the State of such an incubus.


1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1197-1232 ◽  
Author(s):  
G L Clark

The rules and standards of law both regulate behavior (individual or group) and provide the context within which behavior occurs. By means of a hermeneutic framework, the spatial integration of the United States economy is interpreted in terms of the structure and application of laws adjudicated by the Supreme Court. Emphasis is placed, in particular, upon the substantive aspects of law which have provided the conditions for national economic growth. It is argued that spatial integration can be derived as an outcome from earlier debates between competing classes of the revolutionary era and from an agreement between these classes that the basic unit of American society would be the individual. However, it is also shown that control of the state by the ruling class also enabled the implementation of a policy of spatial integration as part of an overall agenda of national economic development. Evidence in support of this interpretation is drawn from Supreme Court decisions relating, for example, to the Commerce Clause and relative legal autonomy of the local state.


1964 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall B. Ripley

In the literature on political parties in the United States Congress two points are usually stressed. First, it is said that the political party label lacks a precise programmatic content because “party government” in the British sense is absent in the American Congress. Second, however, it is contended that the party label is the single most important and reliable attribute in predicting the voting behavior of a Senator or Representative.Between these two contentions lies a sizeable area of unexplored territory. If party is the best predictive device in analyzing voting behavior in Congress then, despite the lack of “party government,” the party machinery in both houses must have effects that deserve study. Professor Huitt has suggested the necessity and importance of this kind of study: “… the preoccupation with reform has obscured the fact that we have no really adequate model of party leadership as it exists in Congress, and that none can be constructed because we lack simple descriptions of many of the basic working parts of the present system.” Huitt himself and a few others have filled some of these gaps.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document