Legislative Learning: The 104th Republican Freshmen in the House [Paperback]

Legislative Learning breaks new theoretical and descriptive ground in examining the political perceptions, policy principles and power plays of the influential 104th Republican freshmen in the U.S. House. This even-handed book builds on the work of leading congressional scholars, and provides a detailed evaluation of coalition politics, freshmen style. Barnett shows how political environments can produce legislators who place a premium on their policy-making goals through a nuanced exploration of factors undergirding member perceptions, policy ambitions, class cohesion, and legislative learning.

Series Editor Foreword, Steven A. Shull; Foreword, Burdett Loomis; 1. The Watershed Congress and Theory Development; 2. 1997: Three Scenes from Act II of the GOP Revolution; 3. The Reelection Goal and Ambition Theory: Mayhew and Fenno Revisited; 4. The Development of the 104^th GOP Freshman Class Cohesion; 5. Perspectives of the 104^th GOP Freshmen: An Overview; 6. Freshmen and Principles: The Contract as Mission; 7. Freshmen and Principals: The Perception of a Mandate; 8. The Freshmen as a Political Unit: Limitations and Dimensions; 9. Leadership and Freshman Class Power Relations in the House; 10. Learning by Doing: The Progress of the 104^th Class; 11. Putting the 104^th Freshman Class into Perspective; Epilogue; Appendix A: Interview List; Appendix B: Research Design and Data Acquisition

Overall, Barnett's Legislative Learning is a well done theoretical volume that attempts to understand the Republican Freshman Class of 1994 through competing interpretations of principle-agent analysis and member goal and ambition theories. -Gregory R. Thorson. American Political Science Review. Vol.96, No.1.
I found it fascinating to read Dr. Barnett's careful and scholarly analysis of tlcV