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U.S. Polarization in Congress: The role of Congressional Member Organizations in the House of Representatives
Hodboď, Dominik ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Klvaňa, Tomáš (referee)
This thesis aims to contribute to the current academic debate on contemporary polarization in the U.S. Congress. The paper provides a brief overview of the relevenat existing literature and schools of thought on the issue. As part of the thought direction which steers away from definining roots and causes of polarization among the general public but rather sees them as issues of the political elite, this thesis highlights the need to focus on individual Congressional Member Organizations (CMOs) in the House of Representatives and their connection to polarization. By applying an existing dataset accepted among political science scholars as the key tool for measuring polarization, the thesis seeks to affirm the presumed ideological differences among the individual CMOs (or caucuses). The main part of this thesis which adds value to further discussion is the case study of all roll call votes of the 114th House of Representatives examining voting cohesion of the studied caucuses. The aim of this study is to show to what extent the CMOs are in fact consistent voting blocs and how influential they can potentially be within the political elites in the House of Representatives and to what level they may be contributing to the contemporary polarization.
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Predestined to Failure: The Issue of Bearing Arms Within 113th Congress
Šollová, Gabriela ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Calda, Miloš (referee)
This bachelor thesis lay stress on finding out the reason why bills concerning gun control from the beginning of the year 2013 at 113th Congress did not pass. The first part focuses on President Barack Obama as an initiator of the discussion on the theme of gun control on the federal level specifically at the 113. Congress. The thesis is based on supposition that direct influence of the President in legislative issues is weak or none at all but from his presidential post he can affect which issues are being on this level accented. That is why the first part of the thesis sums up the cultural-historical context of gun control in USA. It means to help the reader to acquire a basic framework for better understanding given issues and to determine the level of importance of gun control debate in American culture. The second chapter analyse Obama's stance on gun control and his reaction on attacks that took place during his presidency and tries to determine how was the attack in Sandy Hook so different from the others that it led to factual attempts for changes in gun control laws on federal level. The last third and also the most extensive part deals with the 113th Congress and gun control bills. It analyses each bill and their voting processes and tries to examine main participators and their real...
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Challenger and his chances in the US House of Representatives electoins
Černá, Veronika ; Dvořáková, Vladimíra (advisor) ; Andrýsová, Lenka (referee)
This diploma thesis focuses on challengers' success in the US House of Representatives elections in a selected group of states during the time period 2000-2010. It deals with the context of the American party system and describes the framework of electoral politics and campaigns. Specific position of incumbents in the elections and the incumbency advantage are taken into account as well. Aim of this work is to determine whether and how particular dominance (or absence of a dominant position) of political party in the electoral districts influences challengers' chances to be elected. Electoral districts are divided into two groups according to the presidential election results of 2000, 2004 and 2008. First, there are districts where one party has a dominant voters' support and candidates of that party are safe in the elections. Second, there are districts where neither party has a dominant position. After analysing the House election results 2000-2010 from the perspective of successfully elected challengers, the diploma thesis concludes that when the district was (according to specified criteria) safe for one party, challenger of the other party had no chance of being elected.
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