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.

Timothy J. Barnett

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