The congressional connection: Institutional patterns and interorganizational relations, an organizational approach to U.S. foreign trade policy

This dissertation relies on empirical data drawn from interviews with congressional and executive decision-makers to document a series of political features which allow the American state to integrate pluralist/competitive political patterns associated with distributive domestic politics and the supposedly more hierarchical/"technically" oriented processes documented in more conventional studies which examine foreign policy apparatuses.; The study begins with an examination of the perceptions held by relevant decision-makers concerning the sources/nature of the "constituency" activity encountered in their trade-policy related activities. Subsequent analysis concentrates on the nexus of such factors and the logic of congressional processes--paying particular attention to strategies evolved by members of the Ways and Means committee designed to balance programmatic conflict between constituency preferences and strongly held goals of elected representatives. After documenting a series of coping behaviors which foster close cooperation between Congress and the Executive, the dissertation concludes that institutional adaptation associated with the committee structure in the Congress plays a significant role in underwriting the relative programmatic cohesion and autonomy of the U.S. state.