Richard Fenno

Richard Francis Fenno Jr. (December 12, 1926 – April 21, 2020) was an American political scientist known for his pioneering work on the U.S. Congress and its members. He was Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Rochester. He published numerous books and scholarly articles focused on how members of Congress interacted with each other, with committees, and with constituents. Political scientists considered the research groundbreaking and startlingly original and gave him numerous awards. Many followed his research design on how to follow members from Washington back to their home districts. Fenno was best known for identifying the tendency — dubbed "Fenno's Paradox" — of how most voters say they dislike Congress as a whole, but they trust and reelect their local Congressman.

Biography

Fenno grew up in Boston and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, he graduated from Amherst College in 1948 and completed a Ph.D. degree in political science under William Yandell Elliott at Harvard University in 1956. Fenno moved in 1958 to the University of Rochester where he spent his career. He wrote about Republicans and Democrats and explored rural, urban and African American congressional districts in depth. An independent who never publicized his personal political views, he never endorsed any candidates.

Fenno's books ''Congressmen in Committees'' (1973) and ''Home Style: House Members in Their Districts'' (1978) (for which he won the first D. B. Hardeman Prize) established him as a leading scholar of American politics. With William Riker, Fenno built the reputation of Rochester's political science department. Riker focused on positive political science, while Fenno focused on establishing Rochester as a center for congressional studies. He built the first internship program for undergraduates to work in Congress.Schudel, 2020.

Fenno's trademark style of political science research is sometimes referred to as "Soak and Poke" (see Fenno 1986). Rather than relying primarily on data sets or rational choice theory, Fenno undertook empirical observation of the movements of political actors on the stage of politics. His most famous book ''Home Style'' is written in this fashion.

Fenno won the American Political Science Association's (APSA) Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book in political science in 1978 for ''Home Style''. In 1996, the Association for Budgeting & Financial Management awarded Fenno its Aaron Wildavsky Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement in Public Budgeting, for his work on Congress and appropriations. ''Congress at the Grassroots'' won the 2001 V. O. Key Award for the best book on southern politics.

Fenno served as book review editor of the ''American Political Science Review'' (1968–1971), as a director of the Social Science Research Council, and as president of APSA (1984–1985). He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. Since 1986, APSA's Legislative Studies Section has awarded the Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize for the best book on legislative studies.

Fenno's archival collection is housed at the University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation. Research interview and oral history notes are also housed at the National Archives and Records Administration's Center for Legislative Activities.

According to Norman J. Ornstein:
:Fenno was hands down the most significant student of Congress of the last half of the 20th century. He was the first to note that voters loved their congressman while hating Congress, he wrote the definitive study of the appropriations process (“The Power of the Purse”) and a series of books where he explored the relationship between legislators at home and in Washington.

Fenno died in Mount Kisco, New York on April 21, 2020, from the effects of COVID-19.

Selected publications

*''The President's Cabinet: An Analysis in the Period from Wilson to Eisenhower''. 1959. Harvard University Press
online no charge to borrow
*''The Power of the Purse: Appropriations Politics in Congress''. 1966. Little, Brown
online
*''Congressmen in Committees''. 1973. Little, Brown.
*''Home Style: House Members in their Districts''. 1978. Little, Brown
online
* ''The United States Senate: a bicameral perspective'' (1982
online
*"Observation, Context, and Sequence in the Study of Politics." 1986. ''American Political Science Review'' 80(1): 3–15
online
* ''The making of a senator: Dan Quayle'' (1989
online
* ''The presidential odyssey of John Glenn'' (1990
online
* ''Learning to legislate : the Senate education of Arlen Specter'' (1991
online
* ''The emergence of a Senate leader: Pete Domenici and the Reagan budget'' (1991)
online

*"Strategy and Sophisticated Voting in the Senate." 1994. ''Journal of Politics'' 56(2): 349–376. (with Randall L. Calvert). DOI: 10.2307/213214
online
*''Senators on the Campaign Trail: The Politics of Representation''. 1996. University of Oklahoma Press.
*''Congress at the Grassroots: Representational Change in the South, 1970–1998''. 2000. University of North Carolina Press.
*''Going Home: Black Representatives and their Constituents''. 2003. University of Chicago Pressbr>online

*''Congressional Travels: Places, Connections, and Authenticity''. 2007. Pearson/Longman.

See also

* Fenno's paradox

References

Further reading

*
* Schudel, Matt
"Richard F. Fenno Jr., preeminent scholar of Congress, dies at 93" ''Washington Post'' April 30, 2020

External links

richardfenno.com

Summary of ''Home Style''


University of Rochester bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenno, Richard
1926 births
2020 deaths
Writers from Boston
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Amherst College alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
American political scientists
University of Rochester faculty
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States Navy sailors
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
Members of the American Philosophical Society