Party Polarization in Congress

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Acknowledgments......Page 9
1 Party Polarization in the U.S. Congress......Page 13
I. The Argument of the Book......Page 15
II. Conclusions Reached in the Extant Literature......Page 18
III. The Plan of the Book......Page 21
PART I BUILDING BLOCKS FOR EXPLAINING PARTY POLARIZATION......Page 23
2 A Brief History of Party Polarization......Page 25
I. Party Polarization in the 108th Congress (2003–4)......Page 28
II. Party Polarization since Reconstruction......Page 32
Party Polarization at the Turn of the Twentieth Century......Page 33
Party Dynamics in the Middle of the Twentieth Century......Page 35
Party Polarization in the Post-Reform Congress......Page 39
III. The Development of Polarization Scores......Page 40
IV. Polarization Scores within State Delegations......Page 47
V. The Mechanisms Underlying Polarization......Page 50
VI. Conclusion......Page 53
3 Explanations for Party Polarization......Page 55
I. The Redistricting Explanation......Page 57
II. The Geographic and Political Sorting of Constituents......Page 60
III. Extremism of Party Activists......Page 62
IV. The Institutional Explanation......Page 63
V. An Integrated Argument of Party Polarization......Page 66
VI. Adding Complexity to the Integrated Explanation......Page 68
VII. A Conclusion of Caveats......Page 70
PART II CONSTITUENCY CHANGE......Page 71
4 Redistricting......Page 74
I. The Ideology of New and Obliterated Districts......Page 78
II. A Direct Test of Redistricting's Effect on Polarization......Page 82
III. Redistricting Category Analysis......Page 85
IV. A Multivariate Assessment of Redistricting......Page 92
V. Conclusion......Page 94
5 The Political and Geographic Sorting of Constituents......Page 97
I. Ideological Sorting of Voters......Page 101
Demographic Polarization in Members’ Constituencies......Page 103
Partisan Outcomes by Congressional District and State......Page 105
Consistency across Races in the Same Election......Page 107
Consistency Across Elections......Page 111
III. The Ideology of Members from Strong and Weak States......Page 113
IV. Conclusion......Page 114
6 Extremism of Party Activists......Page 121
I. The Extremism of Convention Delegates......Page 123
II. The Impact of State Delegations on Senators' Ideologies......Page 127
A More Sophisticated Analysis......Page 132
III. The Impact of Party Activists' Extremism on Member Polarization......Page 134
IV. Conclusion......Page 140
PART III INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE......Page 141
7 Connecting Constituency Change to Institutional Change......Page 143
I. The Growing Ideological Homogeneity of Political Parties......Page 146
II. The Polarization of Congressional Leaders......Page 147
III. The Growing Power of More Polarized Leaders......Page 150
Rewards and Punishment......Page 154
Structuring the Legislative Agenda......Page 157
The Utility of Using Procedures......Page 162
The Frequency of Procedural Votes......Page 163
IV. Conclusion......Page 165
8 The Interaction in the Legislative Process......Page 168
I. Categorizing the Votes......Page 174
II. The Interaction of Constituency Change and Institutional Change......Page 182
A Reality Check between Data and Theory......Page 189
IV. Conclusion......Page 191
Time Trends in One Regression Model......Page 192
Separate Estimates for Each Congress......Page 196
Conclusion......Page 207
9 The Link between the House and the Senate......Page 208
I. Comparing Senate Polarization to House Polarization......Page 209
II. The Effect of House Experience on Senator Ideology......Page 213
III. The Gingrich Senators......Page 222
Representation among the Gingrich Senators......Page 223
IV. Conclusion......Page 227
10 Procedural Polarization in the U.S. Congress......Page 230
I. Mandates for Future Research......Page 233
Procedural Votes Must Be a Part of the Polarization Conversation......Page 234
Not All Votes Are the Same......Page 235
Fleshing Out the Comprehensive Model......Page 236
Is Polarization Bad?......Page 237
Is the Polarization Real?......Page 238
A Theory of Polarization?......Page 239
Bibliography......Page 241
Index......Page 251