Steering the Senate

The Senate majority and minority leaders stand at the pinnacle of American national government – as important to Congress as the speaker of the House. However, the invention of Senate floor leadership has, until now, been entirely unknown. Providing a sweeping account of the emergence of party organization and leadership in the US Senate, Steering the Senate is the first-ever study to examine the development of the Senate's main governing institutions. It argues that three forces – party competition, intraparty factionalism, and entrepreneurship – have driven innovation in the Senate. The book details how the position of floor leader was invented in 1890 and then strengthened through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawing on the full history of the Senate, this book immediately becomes the authoritative source for understanding the institutional development of the Senate – uncovering the origins of the Senate party caucuses, steering committees, and floor leadership.

• Explains how and why party leadership emerged in the US Senate, including the invention of party caucuses, steering committees, and floor leaders
• Provides a sweeping account of the rise of the modern Senate that focuses on the development of the institutions that govern the modern Senate, the party caucus (or conference) and the positions of majority leader and minority leader
• Offers a comprehensive framework for analyzing and understanding emergence of party leadership