University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2014 Tea Time: A Comparative Analysis of the Tea Party Caucus and House Republican Conference in the One Hundred Twelfth Congress Stephen Phillips University of Central Florida Part of the American Politics Commons, and the Comparative Politics Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. STARS Citation Phillips, Stephen, "Tea Time: A Comparative Analysis of the Tea Party Caucus and House Republican Conference in the One Hundred Twelfth Congress" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 4699. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/4699 TEA TIME: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE TEA PARTY CAUCUS AND HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE IN THE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS by STEPHEN C. PHILLIPS B.A. University of Central Florida, 2012 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Political Science in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2014 © 2014 Stephen C. Phillips ii ABSTRACT Following the historic election of Barack Obama, the largest overhaul of the nation’s health care system since the Great Society, and with the country still reeling from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, a group of disenchanted conservative Republicans and elected leaders wary of government policy gave rise to a new political movement – the Tea Party.