18
Table 5 here
For the minority party, the level of rolls is generally higher, though also quite
variable. There was at least one minority contingent roll in every congress, with the
number ranging as high as 18 in the 27
th
Congress.
When we compare the two parties, the majority is generally rolled less—though,
again, there is substantial variation across congresses in the extent to which this is true. In
the 20
th
, 23
rd
, 31
st
, and 32
nd
Congresses, the majority was rolled more than the minority;
and in the 25
th
and 33
rd
Congresses, they were rolled an equal number of times. In several
other congresses, however—and particularly in those with non-Democrat majorities
during the second half of the time series (from the 27
th
Congress on)—the majority was
infrequently rolled, but minority rolls were numerous. Exceptions include the
aforementioned 31
st
Congress, as well as the 32
nd
, which had a Democratic majority.
Turning now to majority and minority rolls by committee, shown in Table 6, we
see that, for the most part, the committees whose majority contingents were rolled are
among the committees previously mentioned as dealing with the big issues of the day:
Commerce, Public Lands, and Ways and Means were rolled three, four, and 14 times,
respectively. In addition, the majority on Military Affairs was rolled three times. On the
other hand, majority contingents from the Judiciary and Territories Committees were
rolled only once on 41 votes combined. The 14 majority rolls on Ways and Means were
11.3 percent of the 124 final passage votes on bills from Ways and Means, which is
higher than the overall 7.3 percent for the committee. This seems to indicate that the
majority party—at least in aggregate—did not exert the kind of strong, consistent control
Convention