美國國會委員會的議事運作過程－－三個理論觀點的探討

The Operation of the American Congressional Committee: Exploration of Three theoretical Viewpoints

國會在政策制定過程中扮演極重要的角色。惟是否能發揮預期功能，實與委員之議事運作有著密切關係。本文旨在探討美國國會委員會的法案審議制度的運作。所採取的研究方法，主要是試圖將國會的相關文獻與實例相結合。本文首先說明，委員會本身結構的變化對於委員運作所造成的衝擊，而後根據現有相關理論所鋪陳出的各項觀點，來解釋委員會在決策過程所扮演的角色。最後再討論三種理論，包括形式理論、新制度論以及資訊理理作為分析委員會運作工具之優缺點。

The Congress has an important role in the U. S. policy-making process. However, whether it can exert great influence or not depends on the function of the committee system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the American congressional committee-including such areas as assignment, bill-examining, and bill-approving. After critically discussing the differences found in the main theories-especially formal theory, new institutionalism and information theory, this paper goes further to analyze the limitation of these approaches as an analytical tool.