Congressional Careers: Service Tenure and Patterns of Member Service, 1789-2023
Congressional Research Service 7
controlled committee appointments, changes in party control were common, and seniority in the
chamber was not yet as valuable as it would later become.
After the Civil War, circumstances changed and precipitated a rise of careerism in Congress.
Legislative careers became professionalized, and the concept of the “citizen legislator” became a
thing of the past.
Some observers attribute this to institutional changes in the structure of
congressional elections, such as the strengthening of the party system and the emergence of one-
party states and districts following the Civil War.
Others have identified redistricting practices
as a potential factor in lengthening careers.
Recent scholarship has pointed to historical electoral
reforms, such as adoption of the secret ballot and nominating primaries, as contributing to the
increases in average tenure around the turn of the 20
th
century.
Other scholars have pointed to institutional changes in congressional operations, such as the rise
of the seniority system, the development of the committee system, and new advantages of
incumbency that allowed Members to generate publicity, serve constituents, and receive support
in organizing their offices and forming agendas that help them be effective legislators.
In
addition, the development of transportation technology made travel between Washington and a
Member’s home district less burdensome, potentially increasing the attractiveness of a longer
career.
Finally, the emergence of national problems raised a legislative career to a new level of
importance. As the federal government took on new responsibilities, both after the Civil War and
in the early 20
th
century, Members may have begun to view congressional office as relatively
more desirable than state office, and this may have contributed to many Members’ desire to
David Brady, Kara Buckley, and Douglas Rivers, “The Roots of Careerism in the House of Representatives,”
Legislative Studies Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 4 (November 1999), p. 490.
John R. Hibbing, “The Modern Congressional Career,” The American Political Science Review, vol. 85 (June 1991),
pp. 404-425; Howard Baker, “‘Citizen Legislators’ Would Be Better,” Washington Post, July 8, 1983, p. 21; and Saul
Pett, “Baker Seeks to Change Face of Congress,” Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1983, pp. 2, 15.
Robert G. Brookshire and Dean F. Duncan, “Congressional Career Patterns and Party Systems,” Legislative Studies
Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 1 (February 1983), pp. 65-78; Nelson Polsby, “The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of
Representatives,” The American Political Science Review, vol. 41, no. 1 (March 1968).
Seth C. Mckee, “The Effects of Redistricting on Voting Behavior in Incumbent U.S. House Elections, 1992-1994,”
Political Research Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 1 (March 2008), pp. 122-133; Jamie L. Carson, Erik J. Engstrom, and Jason
M. Roberts, “Redistricting, Candidate Entry, and the Politics of Nineteenth-Century U.S. House Elections,” American
Journal of Political Science, vol. 50, no. 2 (April 2006), pp. 283-293.
Jamie L. Carson and Jason M. Roberts, Ambition, Competition, and Electoral Reform: The Politics of Congressional
Elections Across Time (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013); Erik J. Engstrom and Samuel Kernell, Party
Ballots, Reform, and the Transformation of America’s Electoral System (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2014); Scott A. MacKenzie, “Life Before Congress: Using Pre-Congressional Experience to Assess Competing
Explanations for Political Professionalism,” Journal of Politics, vol. 77, no. 2 (April 2015), pp. 505-518.
On the seniority system, see Polsby, “The Institutionalization of the U.S. House Representatives”; Michael Abram
and Joseph Cooper, “The Rise of Seniority in the House of Representatives,” Polity, vol. 1, no. 1 (August 1968), pp.
52-85; on the development of the committee system, see Walter Kravitz, “Evolution of the Senate’s Committee
System,” Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, vol. 411 (January 1974), pp. 27-38; George B.
Galloway, “Development of the Committee System in the House,” The American Historical Review, vol. 65, no. 1
(October 1959), pp. 17-30; on the development of Member resources, see Richard Fenno, Homestyle: House Members
and Their Districts (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978); Bruce Cain, John Ferejohn, and Morris Fiorina, The Personal Vote:
Constituency Service and Electoral Independence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987).