Hearings on the Hill
The Politics of Informing Congress

This book shows how legislators strategically use congressional committee hearings and witnesses to collect information and influence policy.

Pamela Ban (Author), Ju Yeon Park (Author), Hye Young You (Author)

9781009534093, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 November 2024

214 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'Our lawmakers need to know things to make laws, but what do they know? Hearings on the Hill is easily the most important study to date about how Congress does (and doesn't) inform itself when setting national policy. Drawing on unrivaled data, this seminal book reveals how the information that shapes our representatives' policy decisions is just as susceptible to political influence as the votes they cast and campaigns they wage. This book will make a splash.' James M. Curry, University of Utah

Good public policy in a democracy relies on efficient and accurate information flows between individuals with firsthand, substantive expertise and elected legislators. While legislators are tasked with the job of making and passing policy, they are politicians and not substantive experts. To make well-informed policy, they must rely on the expertise of others. Hearings on the Hill argues that partisanship and close competition for control of government shape the information that legislators collect, providing opportunities for party leaders and interest groups to control information flows and influence policy. It reveals how legislators strategically use committees, a central institution of Congress, and their hearings for information acquisition and dissemination, ultimately impacting policy development in American democracy. Marshaling extensive new data on hearings and witnesses from 1960 to 2018, this book offers the first comprehensive analysis of how partisan incentives determine how and from whom members of Congress seek information.

1. Members of Congress are politicians, not experts
2. Committee hearings and information provision in Congress
3. Who testifies in Congress? New data on congressional hearings and witnesses
4. Not all information is equal: how witnesses vary in what they provide to Congress
5. When committees seek out information for policy development
6. How control of government shapes information exchange
7. Congressional capacity and the search for specialized information
8. Conclusion: a partisanly informed Congress
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]