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 a 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.

Early life and education 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's trademark style of political science research is sometimes referred to as "Soak and Poke" (see Fenno, 1986). 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 interviews 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.

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) [http, "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: 10.2307/2132143 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 Press online. Congressional Travels: Places, Connections, and Authenticity. 2007. Pearson/Longman.