No legislature in the world has a greater influence over its nation's public affairs than the US Congress. The Congress's centrality in the US system of government has placed research on Congress at the heart of scholarship on American politics. Generations of American government scholars working in a wide range of methodological traditions have focused their analysis on understanding Congress, both as a lawmaking and a representative institution. The purpose of this volume is to take stock of this impressive and diverse literature, identifying areas of accomplishment and promising directions for future work. The editors have commissioned 37 chapters by leading scholars in the field, each chapter critically engages the scholarship focusing on a particular aspect of congressional politics, including the institution's responsiveness to the American public, its procedures and capacities for policymaking, its internal procedures and development, relationships between the branches of government, and the scholarly methodologies for approaching these topics. The Handbook also includes chapters addressing timely questions, including partisan polarization, congressional war powers, and the supermajoritarian procedures of the contemporary Senate. Beyond simply bringing readers up to speed on the current state of research, the volume offers critical assessments of how each literature has progressed - or failed to progress - in recent decades. The chapters identify the major questions posed by each line of research and assess the degree to which the answers developed in the literature are persuasive. The goal is not simply to tell us where we have been as a field, but to set an agenda for research on Congress for the next decade. The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics. General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III

Eric Schickler is Jeffrey and Ashley McDermott Chair in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (Princeton University Press, 2001) and co-author, with Greg Wawro, of Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate (Princeton University Press, 2006). Both books received APSA's Richard F. Fenno Award for the best book published on legislative politics. He is also co-author of Partisan Hearts and Minds (with Donald Green and Bradley Palmquist), which was published in 2002 (Yale University Press). He has authored or co-authored articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, Studies in American Political Development, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Social Science History. Frances E. Lee is author of Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate (University of Chicago Press, 2009), coauthor of Sizing Up The Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation (University of Chicago Press 1999), and co-author of a comprehensive textbook on the U.S. Congress, Congress and Its Members (CQ Press). Her research has appeared in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Legislative Studies Quarterly. Her work has received national recognition, including the APSA's E. E. Schattschneider Award for the best dissertation in American Politics, the D. B. Hardeman Award presented by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation for the best book on a congressional topic, and the APSA's Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Award for the best book on legislative politics published. She is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland-College Park.

• Part I: Introduction
• 1: Eric Schickler and Frances E. Lee: Studying the Congress
• 2: Bruce Oppenheimer: Behavioral Approaches to the Study of Congress
• 3: Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman: Formal Approaches to the Study of Congress
• 4: Nolan McCarty: Measuring Legislative Preferences
• 5: Ross K. Baker: Touching the Bones: Interviewing and Direct Observational Studies of Congress
• 6: Ira Katznelson: Historical Approaches to the Study of Congress: Towards a Congressional Vantage on American Political Development
• Part II: Elections
• 7: Jamie L. Carson and Jason M. Roberts: House and Senate Elections
• 8: Tracy Sulkin: Congressional Campaigns
• 9: Michael P. McDonald: Congressional Redistricting
• 10: Robin Kolodny: Campaign Finance in Congressional Elections
• Part III: Representation and Responsiveness
• 11: Michele L. Swers and Stella M. Rouse: Descriptive Representation: Understanding the Impact of Identity on Substantive Representation of Group Interests
• 12: Frances E. Lee: Bicameral Representation
• 13: Stephen Ansolabehere and Philip Edward Jones: Dyadic Representation
• 14: Diana Evans: Pork Barrel Politics
• 15: David Brady: Public Opinion and Congressional Policy
• 16: John D. Griffin: Public Evaluations of Congress
• Part IV: Congressional Institutions and Procedures
• 17: Randall Strahan: Party Leadership
• 18: Larry Evans: Congressional Committees
• 19: Greg Wawro: The Supermajority Senate
• 20: Gary Cox and Mathew McCubbins: Managing Plenary Time in Democratic Legislatures: The U.S. Congress in Comparative Context
• 21: Scott Adler: Congressional Reforms
• 22: John B. Gilmour: The Congressional Budget Process
• Part V: Politics and Policymaking
• 23: Brian F. Schaffner: Party Polarization
• 24: Paul Quirk and William Bendix: Deliberation in Congress
• 25: Sean Theriault, Patrick Hickey and Abby Blass: Roll Call Votes
• 26: Beth Leech: Lobbying and Interest Group Advocacy
• 27: John Wilkerson and Barry Pump: The Ties that Bind: Coalitions in Congress
• 28: Sarah A. Binder: Legislative Productivity and Gridlock
• Part VI: Congressional Development
• 29: Wendy J. Schiller: The Development of Congressional Elections
• 30: Jeff Jenkins: The Evolution of Party Leadership
• 31: Eric Schickler: The Development of the Committee System
• 32: Douglas Dion: Majority Rule and Minority Rights
• 33: Richard Bensel: Sectionalism and Congressional Development
• Part VII: Congress and the Constitutional System
• 34: B. Dan Wood: Congress and the Executive Branch: Delegation and Presidential Dominance
• 35: Linda L. Fowler: Congressional War Powers
• 36: Michael A. Bailey, Forrest Maltzman, and Charles R. Shipan: The Amorphous Relationship Between Congress and the Courts
• Part VIII: Reflections
• 37: Morris Fiorina: Reflections on the Study of Congress, 1969-2009
• 38: David Mayhew: Theorizing about Congress