ABSTRACT
“Political institutions serve two very different purposes. On the one hand, they help mitigate collective-action problems, particularly the commitment and enforcement problems so debilitating to political exchange, and thus allow the various actors in politics to cooperate in the realization of gains from trade. On the other hand, political institutions are also weapons of coercion and redistribution. They are the structural means by which political winners pursue their own interests, often at the great expense of political losers”. The chapter addresses the implications for procedural choice and theories of legislative organization based on the argument that the Rules Committee serves as the agent of the majority party. The choice of restrictive rules is significantly influenced by the policy position of the majority party across various congressional contexts during the postreform controlling for other theoretically important variables.
