Assessing Nancy Pelosi
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Ronald M Peters
Congressional scholars have devoted considerably more attention to describing and explaining congressional leadership than to evaluating it. The election of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives provides fresh occasion for consideration of normative criteria for assessing leadership performance. In this article we develop a set of normative criteria grounded in congressional leadership theory. We discuss recent speakerships in relationship to these criteria. We then assess Speaker Pelosi's performance in the 110th Congress. We conclude that by each criterion, she has provided effective leadership; however, we regard any assessment at this point to be provisional. Important tests of her leadership are yet to come.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Congressional scholars have devoted considerably more attention to describing and explaining congressional leadership than to evaluating it. The election of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives provides fresh occasion for consideration of normative criteria for assessing leadership performance. In this article we develop a set of normative criteria grounded in congressional leadership theory. We discuss recent speakerships in relationship to these criteria. We then assess Speaker Pelosi's performance in the 110th Congress. We conclude that by each criterion, she has provided effective leadership; however, we regard any assessment at this point to be provisional. Important tests of her leadership are yet to come.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Evaluating Majority Party Leaders in Congress
- The Politics of Constraint: House Republicans in Retrospect and Prospect
- Senate Republican Leadership in Tough Times
- Orchestrators of Unorthodox Lawmaking: Pelosi and McConnell in the 110th Congress
- Assessing Nancy Pelosi
- The American Public's View of Congress
- Commentary
- East European 'Model' to Cuban Freedom
- Response or Comment
- Comment on "Searching for Voters along the Liberal-Conservative Continuum"
- Review
- Review of Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age
- Review of Unequal Democracy
- Review of Unequal Democracy
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Evaluating Majority Party Leaders in Congress
- The Politics of Constraint: House Republicans in Retrospect and Prospect
- Senate Republican Leadership in Tough Times
- Orchestrators of Unorthodox Lawmaking: Pelosi and McConnell in the 110th Congress
- Assessing Nancy Pelosi
- The American Public's View of Congress
- Commentary
- East European 'Model' to Cuban Freedom
- Response or Comment
- Comment on "Searching for Voters along the Liberal-Conservative Continuum"
- Review
- Review of Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age
- Review of Unequal Democracy
- Review of Unequal Democracy
