Turning the Legislative Thumbscrew: Minority Rights and Procedural Change in Legislative Politics - Hardcover

Douglas Dion

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472108204 ISBN 13: 9780472108206

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1997

Synopsis

The use of filibusters in the U.S. Senate by small numbers of members to prevent legislative action apparently desired by a majority of the members - as evidenced by the battles over civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s - is legendary. Similar situations have existed in other legislative bodies over time. The fear that they will at some time be in the minority has inhibited actions by the majority groups to control the right of minority groups to block legislative action. And yet from time to time the majority in a legislative body has forced a change in the rules to control the rights of the minority. When does the majority seek to limit minority rights to obstruct legislation? Douglas Dion, in a unique study, develops a formal model to set out the conditions under which majorities will limit minority rights. He finds that when majorities are small, they will be more cohesive. This majority cohesion leads to minority obstruction that in turn leads to majority efforts to force procedural change to control the ability of the minority to obstruct legislation. Dion then tests his findings in a rich consideration of historical cases from the nineteenth century U.S. House of Representatives, the nineteenth and twentieth century U.S. Senate, the British House of Commons, and an account of the Austro-Hungarian Parliament from Mark Twain.

About this title

Product Description:

Turning the Legislative Thumbscrew A study of minority rights in legislative politics

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0472108204
• ISBN 13: 9780472108206
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312