{"title":"The Deaths of Ideas in Congress","authors":"Jeremy Gelman","doi":"10.1177/10659129241246003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Research on lawmaking generally examines why lawmakers enact certain policy ideas. However, most ideas in the United States Congress never become law. Eventually, members stop introducing them altogether. This process, where policies are proposed, not acted on, and no longer advocated for is, by far, the most common legislative outcome. The literature pays it little attention. Yet, how ideas die is important in understanding why some measures stop being realistic alternatives, the importance of policy entrepreneurship, and how policy windows affect the supply of ideas. This paper analyzes why congressional ideas die. I argue and find that the proposals designed to be enacted, especially by legislators with more issue expertise and agenda-setting powers, are less likely to persist across terms. I also show that ideas disappear more often when their sponsors leave Congress, but do not find a similar pattern for when policy windows close and lawmaking conditions worsen.","PeriodicalId":51366,"journal":{"name":"Political Research Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Political Research Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241246003","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Research on lawmaking generally examines why lawmakers enact certain policy ideas. However, most ideas in the United States Congress never become law. Eventually, members stop introducing them altogether. This process, where policies are proposed, not acted on, and no longer advocated for is, by far, the most common legislative outcome. The literature pays it little attention. Yet, how ideas die is important in understanding why some measures stop being realistic alternatives, the importance of policy entrepreneurship, and how policy windows affect the supply of ideas. This paper analyzes why congressional ideas die. I argue and find that the proposals designed to be enacted, especially by legislators with more issue expertise and agenda-setting powers, are less likely to persist across terms. I also show that ideas disappear more often when their sponsors leave Congress, but do not find a similar pattern for when policy windows close and lawmaking conditions worsen.
期刊介绍:
Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) is the official journal of the Western Political Science Association. PRQ seeks to publish scholarly research of exceptionally high merit that makes notable contributions in any subfield of political science. The editors especially encourage submissions that employ a mixture of theoretical approaches or multiple methodologies to address major political problems or puzzles at a local, national, or global level. Collections of articles on a common theme or debate, to be published as short symposia, are welcome as well as individual submissions.