Congress in Reverse

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"In this book, the authors examine when and why Congress repeals existing laws. While many scholars seek to explain Congressional activity by focusing on the institution's ability to enact new legislation, Birkhead and Ragusa explore Congress's ability to "undo" existing statutes. The authors demonstrate that the dynamics of law creation and law repealing are not mirror opposites, and develop a new theory for understanding Congressional behavior that focuses on the majority party's ideological cohesiveness as well as its recent experience out of power. The authors argue that repeals are most common when the parties are ideologically cohesive and the majority party wins control of Congress after a long stint in the minority. In simple terms, repeals tend to occur when the majority party is not hampered by ideological divisions and came into power believing that they have a mandate for action"--