Assessing the Congressional Committee System: Contributions from a Comparative Perspective

The study of American congressional committees has flourished in recent years, but two major perceptual problems have limited the utility of this research for students of legislatures. One problem—the Washington bias—which deems Congress, and Congress alone, as the only legislature worthy of study has led to an overemphasis on minor inter-committee differences and away from an examination of the entire committee system as it relates to other institutions of the government. The other problem—the bifocal inference—has resulted in American political scientists focussing on only two elements in the legislative process, the committees and the parties, and concluding from the atypical American and British experience that their power positions are inversely related. Both problems can be alleviated through a comparative perspective which enables us to see that the American congressional committee system is the most powerful one in the world and that it derives part of its strength from the weakness of American legislative parties. While there is no necessary connection between party weakness and committee strength, this is the case in the United States, and it provides Congress with the protective mechanism which it needs to overcome the often fatal combination of an exertive presidential executive and a nonarticulative party system.