house: United States House of Representatives historical make-up

In JECheadle/RSOC317L: Data Sets and Supplemental Functions from David Diez's 'OpenIntro' Textbook

Description

The make-up of the United States House of Representatives every two years since 1789. The last Congress included is the 112th Congress, which completes its term in 2013.

Usage

data(house)

Format

A data frame with 112 observations on the following 12 variables.

congress

The number of that year's Congress

yearStart

Starting year

yearEnd

Ending year

seats

Total number of seats

p1

Name of the first political party

np1

Number of seats held by the first political party

p2

Name of the second political party

np2

Number of seats held by the second political party

other

Other

vac

Vacancy

del

Delegate

res

Resident commissioner

Source

Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives Party Divisions:

http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/partyDiv.html

Data for Congresses 1-111 was recorded from the website above on November 1st, 2010. It appears this page was later moved to

http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/partyDiv.aspx (no longer available)

where data for Congress 112 was recorded on April 21, 2011.

Examples

data(house)

#=====> Examine two-party relationship since 1855 <=====#
these <- 34:112
COL   <- c("#EEDDBB", "#DDEEBB", "#DDDDDD",
           "#BBDDEE", "#EEE5E5", "#EECCCC")
party <- c("#2222FF", "#FF2222")
par(las=1)
plot(house$yearStart[these], 100*house$np1[these]/house$seats[these],
      type="n", xlab="Year", ylab="Percent of House seats", ylim=c(11, 93))
rect(1861.3, -1000, 1865.3, 1000, col=COL[1], border="#FFFFFF")
rect(1914.5, -1000, 1918.9, 1000, col=COL[2], border="#FFFFFF")
rect(1929, -1000, 1939, 1000, col=COL[3], border="#FFFFFF")
rect(1939.7, -1000, 1945.6, 1000, col=COL[4], border="#FFFFFF")
rect(1955.8, -1000, 1965.3, 1000, col=COL[5], border="#E2E2E2")
rect(1965.3, -1000, 1975.4, 1000, col=COL[6], border="#E2E2E2")
lines(house$yearStart[these], 100*house$np1[these]/house$seats[these],
      col=party[1])
lines(house$yearStart[these], 100*house$np2[these]/house$seats[these],
      col=party[2])
legend("topleft", lty=c(1,1), col=party,
      c("Democrats", "Republicans"), bg="#FFFFFF")
legend("topright", fill=COL,
      c("Civil War", "World War I", "Great Depression", "World War II",
        "Vietnam War Start", "Vietnam War Escalated"),
      bg="#FFFFFF", border="#FFFFFF")

JECheadle/RSOC317L documentation built on May 15, 2019, 4:02 a.m.