In this article, the emergence of the modern Congress characterized by a seniority system, strong committees, and weak party leadership, is linked to changes in external electoral forces. Specifically, we argue that the changes in both House and Senate organization were driven by the rise of...

The paper attempts via case studies to illustrate the nature and importance of political structures and transitions in the course of rapid growth and development. The cases are drawn principally from Asia, where the pattern has often been a dominant single-party structure evolving into a full...

This article investigates the historical impact of party and constituency preferences on tariff votes from the U.S. Senate over the period 1883--1930. We find that the estimated effect of party grows during periods in which legislative institutions favored strong parties. We conclude that party...

Many studies suggest that personal ideology accounts for much more of congressional voting behavior than does attention to the desires of the electorate. There are two main explanations given for this seemingly robust conclusion: (1) poor measures of constituency preferences compared to those...

Prior scholarship is sharply divided on how or if globalization influences welfare states. Globalization's effects may be positive causing expansion, negative triggering crisis and reduction, curvilinear contributing to convergence, or insignificant. We bring new evidence to bear on this crucial...

In May 2008, the commission on growth and development (the growth commission) issued its report entitled 'the growth report'. In it the commission attempted to distill what had been learned in the past two decades, from experience and academic and policy research, about strategies and policies...