Congressional Racial Solidarity

Abstract

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), racially based national constituency informal organization within of Representatives, promotes and attempts to preserve legislation salient to African American populace (Barnett, 1977a). The performance of this critical task is aided when CBC membership votes as unified bloc. Congressional scholars have shown that informal organizations maximize their bargaining leverage through cohesive voting behavior (Ferber, 1971; Kofmehl, 1964; Stevens, Miller, & Mann, 1974), as group voting solidarity provides a measure of influence out of proportion to number of its members (Fiellin, 1962, p. 85). The capacity to furnish dependable bloc of votes is important political capital in decentralized and obstructionist arena of postreform Congress. Unity in roll call voting enhances the impact of Caucus to bargain on policy-making process, and more importantly may permit Caucus to bargain and negotiate more effectively with other blocs in House (Levy & Stoudinger, 1976, p. 43). This study seeks to ascertain extent to which CBC has voted as cohesive unit over course of 20-year period