This study is for understanding and introducing congressional history in the development of American political history since the 1980s. Under the milieu of Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, the New Left criticized the liberal consensus view of American history. Within the historical discipline, in addition, a social and cultural history revolution took place that pushed scholars to emphasize the history from the bottom up such as class formation, gender relations, and cultural consciousness. Therefore. political history, which focused on not ordinary people but political elites who represented peoples, was loosing it’s place in the realm of American history. However, during the 1980s, a group of political scientists, sociologists and historians brought historical institutionalism back into the study of politics since they shared the fact that politics was profoundly historical. Bringing together the new institutionalism and sociocultural history, since the 1980s, political history has been reemerging as sociocultural political history for revisiting the study of politics. And it was the time when congressional history emerged in American political history.
When most social and cultural historians minimized the study of government institutions, policymakers, and policies, Congress was characterized an insulated haven for white male elites who subverted the democratic process in favor of vested interest groups or as an archaic institution that functioned as a roadblock from mass social movements. However, recently, historians and historical social scientists are interested in learning more about this important branch of government. A renewed interest among historians in the modern Congress has emerged form two ways. The first approach is the new historical institutional analysis emphasizing how and in what relations Congress itself had been reformed. The second approach which congressional history has emerged is the debate over how gender and race influenced policy development particularly the Social Security Policy.
Unlike social scientists or political scientists, historians provide a more dynamic history of Congress by integrating a history of social conflict and nonelite groups into the analysis of politics and considering categories such as gender and race as well as factors such as symbols, ideology and rhetoric. Given the distrust of Congress in history, a stronger understanding of how the institution related to the people and its condition seems more important ever.

본 논문은 1980년대 이후 미국 정치사의 성장과정에서 특히 의회사의 등장과 그 배경, 그리고 연구경향 등을 연구사적으로 정리하고 소개하는 데 그 목적이 있다. 1960년대 미전역을 휩쓸었던 민권운동의 영향으로 역사학계는 기존의 역사연구방법론에 변화를 경험하게 되었다. 미국의 역사경험에 대한 장밋빛 그림을 그려주었던 전통의 합의사학에 반기를 들고 등장한 신좌파 역사학자들은 미국의 번영 뒤에 가려졌던 일반 대중들과 희생자들을 역사의 주인공으로 회복시키기 시작했다. 이후 1970년대 ‘밑으로부터의 역사’를 강조했던 사회문화사적 역사연구방법론의 등장은 일반 대중의 역사 경험에 깊은 관심을 표명하며 계급, 젠더, 문화, 종교 등 역사연구대상을 크게 넓혀주었다. 이러한 분위기 속에서 소수 정치엘리트 특히 대통령이라는 행정수반에 집중했던 미국의 정치사는 역사학계에서 서서히 그 위치를 잃어가고 있었다.
그런데 1980년대 이후 21세기 전환기에 접어들면서 정치학계는 물론이고 경제학, 사회학 등 사회과학 분야의 연구자들과 역사학자들의 학제적 연구가 활발히 진행되면서 신제도주의 연구방법론이 역사학에 도입되기 시작했고 미국의 정치사는 새로운 부활의 과정을 경험하고 있다. 특히, 역사학계는 일반 대중의 삶에 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 정부의 공공정책에 다시 관심을 기울이기 시작했고, 정책 형성에 있어서 결정적 역할을 담당하는 입법기관인 의회의 중요성이 대두되고 있다. 그 중에서도, 미국의 사회복지정책의 한계와 문제점을 분석하고자 했던 사회문화사가들이 예컨대 젠더와 인종이 정부정책 결정에 있어서 어떤 영향을 서로 주고받았는가에 주목하게 되면서 복지정책의 확대와 축소에 있어서 의회의 역할은 중요한 연구 주제가 되었다. 의회 연구는 크게 두 가지 접근방법으로 분류할 수 있다. 하나는, 다양한 기관들, 즉 여러 정부기관과 사적기관들과의 관계 속에서 의회라는 입법기관 자체의 성격과 그 변화를 설명하는 접근방식이고, 다른 하나는, 정부의 공공정책 속에서 드러나는 의회의 역할을 단순히 정책사(policy history) 연구의 한 주제로 취급하는 것을 넘어 실질적 수혜자들인 일반 대중들과의 역동적 상호관계 속에서 조망하는 접근방식이다. 정부공공정책에서 의회의 역할에 대한 연구 중 특히 본고는 지금까지 많은 성과물을 발표하고 있는 주제인 젠더와 인종연구를 중심으로 논의를 풀어내었다.

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