312: GOVT Parties and Campaigns
Lecture 22: Party Cohesion in the Legislature
Measuring the Concept of Party Unity
Roll call voting: All of the votes that occur in Congress are recorded in the Congressional Record, and are now available in electronic form. Complication: there are many votes where everyone votes in favor of the bill (such as Michael Jordan day). Exclude these.
Measuring the Concept of Party Unity
Party Voting: Percentage of time that a majority of Democrats voted against a majority of Republicans Party Cohesion: Average of percentage of members voting in agreement with a majority of their party. Support of President: percentage of times that members support the position of the president (measured in terms of which party controls presidency) Other Measures: support of party leadership, NOMINATE scores
Party Voting in the House (H p. 254)
Party voting was comparatively high in the House of Representatives during the era of strong legislative parties in the 1800s. Party voting entered a new era with the revolt against Speaker Cannon in 1910. Party voting rose during the New Deal Party voting declined to a low point in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Party voting increased since, though declined in the most recent years.
Party Cohesion in the House (H p. 256)
Shorter time span on graph: 1961-2004. Cohesion has generally been on the rise Democrats and Republicans have similar party cohesion
Democrats more cohesive in the 1980s Republicans more cohesive since 1994
Support of President
Members of president's party are more supportive of president than other party (duh) Senators are more supportive than House members (Why?) Seen increase of opposition between two parties during Reagan/Bush(41) and Clinton. Slight decrease under Bush(43)
Poole and Rosenthal NOMINATE scores
Compute the ideology of members of Congress from their roll call votes. See: http://voteview.com/dwnl.htm Also see p.258
The Dual Nature of Representation
Representative of the district: Candidates appeal to the median voter of their district. Representatives are district-oriented, building a "home-style" connection with their district to help their reelection. (The Electoral Connection) Representative of the party: if the party label to is mean anything, the party needs to implement coherent policies, some of which may be at odds with the district. (Downs: the median voter)
Three reasons why we do not have strong parties in the U.S.
The Electoral Connection (Mayhew) Districts and primaries mean that "All Politics is Local" Candidates must construct their own campaign organizations Congress does not need to form a cabinet like parliamentary systems
Predicts that parties (and indeed Congress as aw whole) only exists to further the reelection needs of the members.
Conditional Party Government
Explains the effect on party organization in government that we observe from the patterns in party cohesion, party voting, NOMINATE scores. Theory: When member's ideology is spread out, members want weak leadership. When ideology is homogenous, members want strong leadership. Explains why the Democrats embarked upon reforms in the early 1970s. Explains why Republicans strengthened the Democratic reforms in the 1990s.
Democratic reforms of the 1970s
Designed to reduce power of conservative chairmen from the South. Increased influence of leadership over committee assignments by creating the Steering and Policy committee. Formerly, assignments were made by the Ways and Means committee. Exception: Speaker given power over rules committee. Terminated seniority system: pa...