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Limiting the terms of members of Congress has become a highsalience issue in contemporary American political discourse, necessitating the attention of the United States Supreme Court to provide constitutional guidance. The forces reviving this debate, dormant since the nation's founding period, merit scrutiny. In addition to reviewing the positions of term limitation advocates and opponents, specific limitation proposals--which lack uniformity as some are chamber-specific, others are life-time bans, etc--also require investigation. The review of relevant judicial precedents will also provide helpful preliminary information useful to analyze U.S. Term Limits vs. Thornton, the term limits case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1995. Researching this increasingly divisive political issue ought to generate a useful, concise synopsis of the historical and judicial issues underpinning the debate, the discussion itself, and analysis of relevant judicial action. / Department of Political Science

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / From the Well of the House analyzes the remaking of the House Republican Party into an aggressive, partisan organization. It explores how a new generation of Representatives elected after 1978 transformed the GOP, instituting a style of congressional politics that favored confrontation, media spectacle, and personal scandal. Following key actors, including Newt Gingrich, Bob Walker, Vin Weber, and the Conservative Opportunity Society, this dissertation explores key events and illustrates how the House Republican Conference changed from passive acceptance of their minority status to pugnacious fighters for the majority. Throughout their careers Gingrich and his Congressional allies promoted a style of politics in the House, first as backbenchers then from leadership positions, which advocated conflict and attack. They showed that aggression was a winning strategy and other Congressmen followed their lead. By examining in depth events that led the House Republican Conference to adopt a more confrontational stance, including the formation of the Conservative Opportunity Society, the use ofC-SPAN as an effective political weapon, the House Bank scandal, and conflicts with Speakers Tip O'Neill and Jim Wright and Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, this dissertation demonstrates that the 1994 Republican Revolution was the product of more than a decade of dedication and hard work. While numerous scholars have analyzed the rise ofthe New Right and the conservative ascendancy in American politics after the 1970s, From the Well of the House breaks new ground by exploring this shift in the arena of Congressional politics. In so doing, it both elucidates the deep background of the House Republican Party's successful efforts to become a majority and establishes the significance of Congress in the transformation of recent American politics. / 2031-01-02

This study has as its central focus an investigation into the existence and nature of the apprenticeship norm in the United States Senate. Over its history, the Senate has been frequently portrayed as a body guided by rather restrictive, informal rules of behavior for its members. The apprenticeship norm has been identified by some as the most important of these rules; contributing to the Senate's centralized and conservative policy orientation. More recently, however, it has been argued that the Senate has become a more decentralized and fragmented body within which the apprenticeship norm is no longer important. The present study offers for the first time an empirical test of the existence and nature of the apprenticeship norm for selected sessions of the Senate for the time period 1940-1976. The frequency of performance of various types of floor activity by members of the Senate were correlated and regressed with years of service in the Senate as well as with other background characteristics of Senators to test both for the existence of the apprenticeship norm as well as to identify its relevance relative to other potential explanations of Senate floor behavior. Several definitions of apprenticeship were advanced and tested.

John Hancock was a Texas Unionist. After the Civil War, he became an opponent of the Radical Republicans. He was elected to Congress in 1871 and had some success working on issues important to Texas. As the state was redeemed from Radical Republican rule, Hancock was increasingly attacked for his Unionism. This led to a tough fight for renomination in 1874, and losses in races for the U.S. Senate and renomination in 1876. He was an unsuccessful congressional candidate in 1878, but was elected again in 1882. By then his political influence had waned and he did not seek renomination in 1884. Hancock had the potential to be a major political leader, but lingering resentment to his Unionism hampered his political career.

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Legislative productivity has been a much debated topic by congressional researchers. The legislative branch of the federal government is considered the people's branch because it is the only branch that is freely elected making it the most easily accountable to the general public. In addition, because the Founders of the United States talk about it first and because they talk about it the most, it is quite reasonable to assume that they meant for the legislature to be the supreme branch of government. It is therefore important to understand what factors can account for the productivity of Congress, over time. In an effort to understand what makes Congress most relevant and effective a measure of significant legislation had to be created. This thesis is unique because it develops a new measure of topical legislative output. The Congressional Digest, a journal that focuses on one salient issue facing the nation each month, is used to determine a salient and relevant legislative agenda. Ultimately, this thesis is testing whether legislation that is discussed by the Congressional Digest is addressed by legislation. More specifically, legislative productivity for this research is defined as a law being passed after the Congressional Digest raises awareness on the issue, and before the Congress in question, adjourns sine die. The Congressional Digest has been published continuously since 1921 which defines the starting point of the research. In order to allow sufficient time to track the success of the legislative initiatives discussed in the journal, which is still in print, the investigation will stop with the last issue in 2004. The new dependent variable was tested using existing variables found in the academic literature on legislative gridlock. Variables such the percentage of moderates in Congress and presidential honeymoons perform as expected; both are associated with less gridlock. Interestingly, the variable testing the change of majority power in Congress produced an effect, opposite of what was expected. New majorities are found to be associated with less topical legislative output. Arguably, this occurs because this new measure of gridlock taps a legislative agenda that represents particularly complicated issues, which new majorities are not equipped to handle effectively. Overall, the new dependent variable holds up to initial scrutiny.

This thesis seeks to understand how political awareness affects what information one uses to indicate their approval or disapproval of Congress and its members. More concisely, do more and less aware individuals rely on the same pieces of political information to mold their opinions of Congress? The second question of concern is what role does media consumption play in informing survey respondents about Congress. Third, I consider how survey respondents use cues like the condition of the economy and presidential job performance to help formulate their opinion of Congress Finally, by applying the Congressional approval literature to incumbent level approval, I seek to advance the theory and literature on what motivates the approval of incumbents.

Congressional roll-call votes are often used to investigate legislative voting behavior. To depict adaptive roll-call behavior in response to demographic changes that occur during redistricting, I use issue specific interest group scores from the ADA, NFU, and COPE. This exploits the bias in the selection of the issues that interest groups utilize to rate U.S. representatives, by using them to reflect changes in response to significant demographic fluctuations in the constituency population. The findings indicate that while party is the most significant factor in whether legislators adapt their voting in favor of certain groups, they do notice group composition changes within district and adapt their voting accordingly. This illustrates the impact of redistricting on policy and legislators' adaptation to changes in district composition.