The Deinstitutionalization (?) of the House of Representatives: Reflections on Nelson Polsby's 'Institutionalization of the House of Representatives' at Fifty

Abstract

This paper revisits Nelson Polsby’s classic article “The Institutionalization of the House of Representatives” nearly fifty years after its publication, in order to examine whether the empirical trends that Polsby identified have continued. This empirical exploration allows us to place Polsby’s findings in broader historical context and to assess whether the House has continued along the “institutionalization course” — using metrics that quantify the degree to which the House has erected impermeable boundaries with other institutions, created a complex institution, and adopted universalistic decisionmaking criteria. Empirically we document that careerism bottomed-out right at the point Polsby wrote “Institutionalization,” and that the extension of the careerism trend has affected Democrats more than Republicans. The House remains complex, but lateral movement between the committee and party leadership systems began to re-establish itself a decade after Institutionalization was published. Finally, the seniority system as a mechanism for selecting committee chairs — the primary measure of universalistic decisionmaking criteria — has been almost thoroughly demolished. Thus, most of the trends Polsby identified have moderated, but have not been overturned. We conclude by considering the larger set of interpretive issues that our empirical investigation poses.