Power, Politics, and Coalitions in the U.S. Congress
This paper analyzes the United States Congress through a political systems lens, drawing on Morgan's (2006) framework of organizational politics. It examines the types of power present in Congress — including legitimate, referent, and coercive power — and explores how members access agendas, control information, and form coalitions through committees and party alliances. The paper also addresses how bicameral structure, procedural rules rooted in the Constitution, and the influence of special interest groups shape the balance of power between the House and Senate. Ultimately, it argues that compromise and negotiation are the cornerstones of Congressional political relationships.
- Congress as a Political Organization: Introduces Congress through Morgan's political systems lens
- Types of Power in Congress: Defines legitimate, referent, and coercive power types
- Agenda Control and Access to Information: Examines how members control agendas and information
- Congressional Committees and Power Coalitions: Analyzes committee structure and bicameral power balance
- Lawmaking, Negotiation, and Coercive Influence: Explores bill passage, compromise, and special interest pressure
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What makes this paper effective
- Applies a concrete theoretical framework — Morgan's (2006) political systems lens — consistently throughout the analysis, grounding each observation in an established academic model.
- Moves logically from abstract concepts (types of power) to structural features (committees, bicameralism) to practical processes (lawmaking and negotiation), giving the analysis clear forward momentum.
- Uses specific, relatable examples — such as the fracking bill trade-off — to make abstract political science concepts tangible and easy to follow.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates organizational case study analysis: it takes a real-world institution and examines it through a named theoretical lens (Morgan's political systems metaphor), systematically addressing each dimension of that framework — interests, conflict, power types, coalition-building, and influence strategies. This technique is common in organizational behavior and political science coursework at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by introducing Congress as a political organization and justifying the theoretical lens. It then defines and categorizes types of power, narrows to agenda access and information control, broadens to structural coalitions via committees, and closes with the procedural mechanics of lawmaking. Each section builds on the last, creating a tightly integrated analysis despite the paper's brevity.
Congress as a Political Organization
This case study analyzes the United States Congress through a political systems lens, drawing on relevant political theories. Viewed through this lens, the organization is examined in terms of who holds power, who has access to agendas and control over information, what power coalitions or alliances exist, and how individual units attempt to influence other units and create upward influence within the organization. As Morgan (2006) points out, all organizations can be perceived as political systems concerned with and dependent on political activity. The United States Congress takes that concept a step further, because the precise and overt purpose of the organization is political activity itself.
To achieve its goals, Congress exhibits the universal political traits of organizations that hinge on the relations among "interests, conflict, and power" (Morgan, 2006, p. 152). It is how the stakeholders in the organization pursue their interests, resolve tensions, and wield power that highlights the most salient issues. Tensions within the organization can be resolved in a number of different ways, such as through debate or pressure. In Congress, several dynamics coexist — including the bureaucratic and the democratic — which are two of the primary means of tension resolution outlined by Morgan (2006).
Types of Power in Congress
Power, defined as "the possession of authority and influence over others," is a "tool that can lead to either positive or negative outcomes in an organization" (Merchant, n.d., p. 1). There are different types of power in organizations like Congress, including legitimate, expert, referent, coercive, and reward-based power. All members of Congress possess legitimate power, as each member has been publicly elected and retains a political mandate to represent his or her constituency or special interest groups.
Although some degree of coercive power does exist in Congress, the most potent and pervasive type of power evident in this organization is referent power. Referent power is "derived from the interpersonal relationships that a person cultivates with other people in the organization" (Merchant, n.d., p. 1). The nature of politics is fundamentally based on relationships and consensus-building within the organization (Hirsch, 2016). Members of Congress therefore possess legitimate power, but different members wield power differentially depending on their roles and relative rank. The influence of special interest groups on political negotiations in Congress cannot be underestimated, as members of Congress can align themselves with external organizations to amplify their influence.
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