U.S. SENATE EXCEPTIONALISM

Rather than assuming that findings about the House of Representatives carry over to the Senate, this edited volume begins with research centered on the Senate itself. The aim is to clarify what makes the upper chamber distinct and to give future researchers a base for testing and refining those ideas. The contributors bring together a range of research methods to produce a synthesis meant for specialists in American politics.

The chapters address representation, elections, committees, party leadership, policy influence, and the Senate's constitutional powers. Each examines how the chamber's particular features shape its operation, separating its behavior from that of the House.

The essays were written by a group of congressional scholars: Alan I. Abramowitz, John R. Alford, David T. Canon, Joseph Cooper, Lawrence C. Dodd, Robert S. Erikson, C. Lawrence Evans, Richard Fenno Jr., Gerald Gamm, John R. Hibbing, Kim Fridkin Kahn, Patrick J. Kenney, Frances D. Lee, Burdett Loomis, Bruce I. Oppenheimer, David W. Rohde, Elizabeth Rybicki, Wendy J. Schiller, Patrick J. Sellers, Barbara Sinclair, Steven Smith, and Charles Stewart III.