Up or Down! House Management and Public Finance Theory from America’s Era of Hastert

Todd J Barry () and Melissa K Aho ()

International Journal of Public Policy and Administration Research, 2020, vol. 7, issue 1, 44-57

Abstract: This primarily conceptual article hypothesizes that the deep divisions in United States politics can in part be traced to the “Hastert Rule,” a management practice since the 1990s which limits lawmakers individual respect, legitimacy, and power. The article first philosophically analyzes the noticeable change in discourse since the “Hastert Rule,” from “compromise” to “common ground.” Next the article offers a regression showing the Hastert Rule’s impact on volume of bills passed, and on public opinion, then arguing via Public Finance/Choice Economics that this management practice has led to changes in American society. A strong case regression is run concerning immigration. The results show that the Hastert Rule has hardened party lines and the public is voting for candidates according issues they suspect are not favored by the opposite party, here termed “median-division” theory. The article concludes with policy suggestions to give individual lawmakers and voters more power over legislative management- up or down!

Keywords: Hastert rule; Median voter theory; Division; Compromise; Common ground; Era of good feelings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://archive.conscientiabeam.com/index.php/74/article/view/1422/1982 (application/pdf)
https://archive.conscientiabeam.com/index.php/74/article/view/1422/5128 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pkp:ijppar:v:7:y:2020:i:1:p:44-57:id:1422

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Public Policy and Administration Research from Conscientia Beam
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dim Michael ().