ABSTRACT
The 1980s saw the emergence of strong, policy-oriented majority party leadership in the House of Representatives. By the Hundredth Congress (1987-88), there had developed a majority party leadership that, compared to other post-World War II leaderships, is more involved in and more decisive in organizing the party and the chamber, setting the House agenda, and determining legislative outcomes. 1 Why, in what is generally characterized as a weak party era and in a legislature often characterized as fragmented, did strong leadership emerge?
