Explaining Government Productivity

In: American politics quarterly, Band 26, Heft 4, S. 439-458

Abstract

This article revises our understanding of the conditions under which the federal government produces important legislation. I reevaluate and only mildly vindicate Mayhew's findings about the effect public opinion has on the productivity of the federal government. By revealing the size of the nation's debt to be an important determinant of productivity, however, I suggest that Mayhew's work overlooked the relationship between fiscal conditions and policy output. I also examine empirically the claims of Krehbiel's theoretical work about gridlock.