A modification of Stephen Toulmin's (1984) “field-specific reasoning” is applied to the text of deliberations in the United States Congress surrounding the foreign corrupt practices case 1975–1977. Findings suggest that Congress has developed an institutionalized mode of deliberation focused on developing argumentation capable of bringing limited sets of highly general and cathected goals (warrants) into equilibrium. The coalition-building capacity of symbolic resources is traced to their “embeddedness” in overlapping networks of issues, existing legislation, governmental organs, congressional committees, legislative careers, and mobilized (or mobilizable) constituencies. The analysis is used to formulate a resource dependence model of exchange in symbolic resources.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BaroneMichaelUjifusaGrant1973. The Almanac of American Politics. Washington, DC: Barone and Company.
2.
BaroneMichaelUjifusaGrant1983. The Almanac of American Politics 1984. Washington, DC: National Journal.
3.
BerkowitzS. D.1982. An Introduction to Structural Analysis: The Network Approach to Social Research. Toronto: Butterworths.
4.
DurkheimÉmile [1893] 1933. The Division of Labor in Society. Translated by SimpsonGeorge. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
5.
DworkinRonald1986. Law's Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
6.
FennoRichard F.1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
7.
GoffmanErving1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
HansenJohn Mark1991. Gaining Access: Congress and the Farm Lobby 1919–1981. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
9.
JohnsonDiane Elizabeth1992. The Politics of Good Reasons: Building the Regulatory State and the Process of Assent. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.
10.
JohnsonDiane Elizabeth1993. Parsons in the year 2000: Reintegrating the Parsonian Canon into Contemporary Social Theory. Unpublished manuscript.
11.
KingdonJohn W.1984. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
12.
KingdonJohn W.1989. Congressman's Voting Decisions. 3rd edition.Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
13.
LaddEverett CarllJr.HadleyCharles D.1978. Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s. New York: W. W. Norton.
14.
LaumannEdward O.KnokeDavid1987. The Organizational State: Social Choice in National Policy Domains. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.
15.
LipsetSeymour MartinSchneiderWilliam1983. The Confidence Gap. New York: The Free Press.
16.
MaassArthur1983. Congress and the Common Good. New York: Basic Books.
17.
MayhewDavid R.1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
18.
MillerWarren E.LevitinTeresa E.1976. Leadership and Change: Presidential Elections from 1952 to 1976. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
19.
MizruchiMark S.SchwartzMichael1987. Intercorporate Relations: The Structural Analysis of Business. New York: Cambridge University Press.
20.
OrrenGary R.SchneiderWilliam1977. Democrats Versus Democrats: Party Factions in the 1972 Presidential Primaries. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Government, Harvard University.
21.
ParsonsTalcott1937. The Structure of Social Action. New York: The Free Press.
22.
PfefferJeffery (1987) “A Resource Dependence Perspective on Intercorporate Relations.” Pp. 25–55. in Intercorporate Relations, edited by MizruchiM.SchwartzM.New York: Cambridge University Press.
23.
PfefferJefferySalancikGerald R.1978. The External Control of Organizations. New York: Harper and Row.
24.
PhillipsKevin P.1969. The Emerging Republican Majority. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.
25.
PhillipsKevin P.1975. Mediacracy: American Parties and Politics in the Communications Age. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
26.
PhillipsKevin P.1982. Post-Conservative America: People, Politics and Ideology in a Time of Crisis. New York: Random House.
27.
PowellWalter W.DiMaggioPaul J.1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
RaeNicol C.1989. The Decline and Fall of the Liberal Republicans from 1952 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press.
29.
SchlozmanKay L.TierneyJohn T.1986. Organized Interests and American Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.
30.
ShaferByron E.1983. Quiet Revolution: The Struggle for the Democratic Party and the Shaping of Post-Reform Politics. New York: Russell Sage.
31.
ToulminStephenRiekeRichardJanikAllan1984. An Introduction to Reasoning. 2nd. edition.New York: Macmillan.
32.
WildavskyAaronTenenbaumEllen1981. The Politics of Mistrust. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
