ABSTRACT
Starting with Mayhew’s (1974) path-breaking work, the study of Congress has taken on a decidedly rational choice flavor. That is, members of Congress are assumed to be utility-maximizing rational actors who have certain goals and preferences, and these goals and preferences determine their behavior. Yet in pursuing the various goals, they are constrained by a multitude of structures and procedures that govern collective decision-making in Congress. These structures and procedures are the focus of a long line of research called the new institutionalism. Yet to my knowledge no scholar has applied the new institutionalism to the study of U.S.–China relations.
