Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006
Research on congressional leadership has been dominated in recent decades by contextual interpretations that see leaders’ behavior as best explained by the environment in which they seek to exercise leadership—particularly, the preference homogeneity and size of their party caucus. The role of agenc...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2016-04-01
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| Series: | SAGE Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016643143 |
| _version_ | 1819132398957232128 |
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| author | John E. Owens Scot Schraufnagel Quan Li |
| author_facet | John E. Owens Scot Schraufnagel Quan Li |
| author_sort | John E. Owens |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research on congressional leadership has been dominated in recent decades by contextual interpretations that see leaders’ behavior as best explained by the environment in which they seek to exercise leadership—particularly, the preference homogeneity and size of their party caucus. The role of agency is thus discounted, and leaders’ personal characteristics and leadership styles are underplayed. Focusing specifically on the speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives from the first to the 110th Congress, we construct measures of each speaker’s commitment to comity and leadership assertiveness. We find the scores reliable and then test the extent to which a speaker’s style is the product of both political context and personal characteristics. Regression estimates on speakers’ personal assertiveness scores provide robust support for a context-plus-personal characteristics explanation, whereas estimates of their comity scores show that speakers’ personal backgrounds trump context. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T09:30:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8068da1be09246bfa436606b9a8e62b7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2158-2440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T09:30:47Z |
| publishDate | 2016-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SAGE Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-8068da1be09246bfa436606b9a8e62b72022-12-21T18:30:57ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402016-04-01610.1177/215824401664314310.1177_2158244016643143Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006John E. Owens0Scot Schraufnagel1Quan Li2University of Westminster, UKNorthern Illinois University, Dekalb, USAWuhan University, ChinaResearch on congressional leadership has been dominated in recent decades by contextual interpretations that see leaders’ behavior as best explained by the environment in which they seek to exercise leadership—particularly, the preference homogeneity and size of their party caucus. The role of agency is thus discounted, and leaders’ personal characteristics and leadership styles are underplayed. Focusing specifically on the speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives from the first to the 110th Congress, we construct measures of each speaker’s commitment to comity and leadership assertiveness. We find the scores reliable and then test the extent to which a speaker’s style is the product of both political context and personal characteristics. Regression estimates on speakers’ personal assertiveness scores provide robust support for a context-plus-personal characteristics explanation, whereas estimates of their comity scores show that speakers’ personal backgrounds trump context.https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016643143 |
| spellingShingle | John E. Owens Scot Schraufnagel Quan Li Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006 SAGE Open |
| title | Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006 |
| title_full | Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006 |
| title_fullStr | Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006 |
| title_short | Assessing the Effects of Personal Characteristics and Context on U.S. House Speakers’ Leadership Styles, 1789-2006 |
| title_sort | assessing the effects of personal characteristics and context on u s house speakers leadership styles 1789 2006 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016643143 |
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