Hostile Takeover: The House Republican Party, 1980-1995 (Studies in American Political Institutions and Public Policy) - Softcover

This is a must reading for anyone interested in understanding the Newt world order. -- William F. Connelly, Jr., Washington and Lee University Lucid, thoughtful, and well-documented, it offers new ways of looking at a timely and intriguing subject. -- John J. Pitney Jr., Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics, Claremont McKenna College Provides a valuable ideological anatomy of a much neglected subject. -- A James Reichley, Senior Fellow; Georgetown University; author of The Life of the Parties This thoughtful analysis of congressional parties concentrates on the minority party and the role(s) available. Essential for college libraries. * CHOICE *

This detailed analysis examines the structure of Republican committee membership in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1980 and 1995. Douglas Koopman's account of the House Republicans' rise to majority status describes the strategies adopted by the Republican minority to oppose the majority's legislative efforts. The author explains how their actions as a minority provide insight into the current and future Republican policy agenda. Delineating the motives of the House Republican leadership and their varying degrees of party loyalty, Hostile Takeover astutely explains that by transforming their resistance to Democratic initiatives into aggressive assaults on the entire majority agenda, House Republicans positioned themselves to take power after the watershed 1994 elections and to define a new range of legitimate political discourse.