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Books
The United States Congress (W.W. Norton, 2019)
An accessible approach to a modern Congress course. Drawing on their extensive teaching experience, Scott Adler, Jeff Jenkins, and Chuck Shipan bring current political science into the classroom in an engaging, accessible way. Driven by vivid examples and clear writing, this comprehensive book teaches students to critically analyze Congress’s role as a representative and governing body. It examines Congress' key rules, structures, and procedures and its dynamic interactions with other institutions.
Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving (Cambridge University Press, 2012)Congress and the Politics of Problem Solving shows how a simple premise - voters are willing to hold lawmakers accountable for their collective problem-solving abilities - can produce novel insights into legislative organization, behavior, and output. How do issues end up on the agenda? Why do lawmakers routinely invest in program oversight and broad policy development? What considerations drive legislative policy change? Knowing that their prospects for reelection are partly dependent on their collective problem-solving abilities, lawmakers support structures that enhance the legislature's capacity to address problems in society and encourage members to contribute to nonparticularistic policy-making activities. The resulting insights are novel and substantial: Congress' collective performance affects the reelection prospects of incumbents of both parties; the legislative issue agenda can often be predicted years in advance; nearly all important successful legislation originates in committee; most laws pass with bipartisan support; and electorally induced shifts in preferences or partisan control are not robust predictors of policy change. The electoral imperative to address problems in society provides a compelling explanation for these important and provocative findings.
The Macropolitics of Congress (Princeton University Press, 2006)How do public laws, treaties, Senate confirmations, and other legislative achievements help us to gain insight into how our governmental system performs? This well-argued book edited by Scott Adler and John Lapinski is the first to assess our political institutions by looking at what the authors refer to as legislative accomplishment. The book moves beyond current research on Congress that focuses primarily on rules, internal structure, and the microbehavior of individual lawmakers, to look at the mechanisms that govern how policy is enacted and implemented in the United States. It includes essays on topics ranging from those dealing with the microfoundations of congressional output, to large N empirical analyses that assess current theories of lawmaking, to policy-centered case studies. All of the chapters take a Congress-centered perspective on macropolicy while still appreciating the importance of other branches of government in explaining policy accomplishment. The Macropolitics of Congress shines light on promising pathways for the exploration of such key issues as the nature of political representation. Contributors include David Brady, Brandice Canes-Wrone, Bob Erikson, John Huber, Ira Katznelson, Keith Krehbiel, David Mayhew, Nolan McCarty, Charles Shipan, and Jim Stimson.
Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System (University of Chicago Press, 2002)For decades, advocates of congressional reforms have repeatedly attempted to clean up the House committee system, which has been called inefficient, outmoded, unaccountable, and even corrupt. Yet these efforts result in little if any change, as members of Congress who are generally satisfied with existing institutions repeatedly obstruct what could fairly be called innocuous reforms. What lies behind the House's resistance to change? Challenging recent explanations of this phenomenon, Scott Adler contends that legislators resist rearranging committee powers and jurisdictions for the same reason they cling to the current House structure—the ambition for reelection. The system's structure works to the members' advantage, helping them obtain funding (and favor) in their districts. Using extensive evidence from three major reform periods—the 1940s, 1970s, and 1990s—Adler shows that the reelection motive is still the most important underlying factor in determining the outcome of committee reforms, and he explains why committee reform in the House has never succeeded and probably never will.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
“Campaign Mailers and Intent to Turnout: Do Similar Field and Survey Experiments Yield the Same Conclusions?” (with David Doherty) Journal of Experimental Political Science (forthcoming).
"Ballots, Transparency, and Democracy" (with Thad E. Hall) 2013. Election Law Journal 12: 146-61.
“Pushing ‘Reset’: The Conditional Effects of Coaching Replacements on College Football Performance” (with Michael J. Berry and David Doherty) 2013. Social Science Quarterly (published online October 26, 2012) 94: 1-28.
“The 2010 Colorado Senate Race: Incumbent Victory in an Anti-incumbency Year,” in Roads to Congress, 2010, ed. Robert Dewhirst and Sean D. Foreman. 2011. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 169-86.
“Congressional Reforms,” in Oxford Handbook of the American Congress, ed. Eric Schickler and Frances Lee. 2011. New York: Oxford University Press, 473-97.
“Congress,” in Encyclopedia of United States Political History, Vol. 7; The Clash of Conservatism and Liberalism, 1976-present, ed. Richard Valelly. 2010. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press.
“Defining the Macropolitics of Congress,” in The Macropolitics of Congress, eds. E. Scott Adler and John Lapinski. 2006. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1-18.
“Legislative Bargaining and the Macro-economy,” in The Macropolitics of Congress, eds. E. Scott Adler and John Lapinski. 2006. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 211-238.
“New Issues, New Members: Committee Composition and the Transformation of Issue Agendas on the House Banking and Public Works Committees,” in Policy Dynamics, eds. Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones. 2002. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 230-249.
Works in Progress
“Shelter In A Storm: Campaign Fundraising and the Changing Nature of Congressional Committees,” E. Scott Adler and Adam Cayton. (Article project)
“Congressional Capacity and Reauthorizations,” E. Scott Adler, Stefani Langehennig, and Ryan Bell. (Book chapter)
“Governing on a Deadline: Congress and Legislative Reauthorizations,” E. Scott Adler, Stefani Langehennig, and Ryan Bell. (Article Project)
“Institutional Advantage in the U.S. Congress,” E. Scott Adler, Stefani Langehennig, and Joseph Zamadics. (Article Project)
“Presidential Policy Statements,” E. Scott Adler, Amber Boydston, Jeffrey Cohen, and Trey Thomas. (Data collection and article/book project coding all public policy statements of presidents.)
“Understanding Political Agendas and Policy Output in Parliamentary Systems,” Shaun Bevan and E. Scott Adler. (Data collection and article project on European Union directives and delegated legislation in European countries.)
“Understanding Congressional Performance Through Legislative Reauthorizations” (Data collection and article/book project)
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