BLOCKING THE LIBERAL AGENDA IN-HOUSE COMMITTEES - THE ROLE OF THE CONSERVATIVE COALITION

Previous scholarly research has relied upon participant observation an d indirect measures such as southern Democrats in positions of power t o determine the presence and success of the Conservative Coalition in congressional committees. These measures are used in turn to ascertain the relationship between Conservative Coalition committee success and subsequent Conservative Coalition floor success. A more realistic mea sure of CC committee success, constructed from previously unavailable committee roll call votes, reveals the Conservative Coalition appears at approximately the same rate as it does on the floor and is slightly more successful in committee. A portion of the variation in the Conse rvative Coalition committee success rate is explained by a regression model utilizing a measure of CC committee strength and two measures of committee chair influence as independent variables. The analysis reve als the strongest predictor of CC committee success is the willingness of the chair to join the CC followed by the size of the coalition.