Table 2. Additional independent variables include a set of controls not shown for ideological diversity across members, time spent in the minority for each new majority party, and the public mood.
Changes in gridlock are simulated by varying the values of each independent variable between the values in column 2 i. For parameter estimates and details on measurement, see Sarah A. But neither institutional nor electoral features of Congress are immutable. True, we are likely stuck with a bicameral system, despite calls from Governor Jesse Ventura Reform-MN and others to consider the unicameral alternative. But the impact of the filibuster can be lessened by reforming Senate rules to make it easier to invoke cloture or by eliminating the noxious practice of anonymous holds.
Elections, of course, are the ultimate recourse for voters dissatisfied by partisan polarization and the conduct of Congress. Nudging Congress back to the center by sending more centrist legislators to Washington would be one way to alleviate gridlock. Still, diagnosing the ills of a body politic is one thing; rousing the patient to seek treatment is another. An Elusive Concept Related Books. But, on balance, Sinclair sees the partisan sorting that has taken place in Congress as being beneficial to the institution because it has produced a system that is more open, inclusive, accountable and expeditious at least in the House, to the majority party caucus.
She concedes, however, that this change has entailed costs — namely the loss of a committee system once characterized by expertise, deliberation, bipartisan harmony and productivity. That was consciously replaced by Democrats in the s because the bipartisanship that existed on committees did not always reflect the majority will of the Democratic Caucus.
He only pushed the accelerator. The irony is that both parties, when in the minority, promise a return to the old regular order if they capture majority control. However, upon regaining majority status, they soon forget their promises and ratchet up the irregular practices of their predecessors.
We have seen this occur three times in the House: , and Account Shopping cart Logout. Explore Politics Politics Search. Explore Blog Reference library Collections Shop. Share: Facebook Twitter Email Print page. Politics Study Notes. Our subjects Our Subjects. Explore Explore. That said, there are key ways in which that period is different than today.
First, the partisan loyalties on display were largely holdovers from the Civil War, i. Rather, the substance of national partisan conflict largely had to do with competing tariff policy visions and how best to exploit political spoils and patronage. But this began to change as economic power concentrated in the Northeastern U. It won several Western states in the presidential election of , too, which was significant as many of the newly added states in that region challenged the overall delicate balance of power.
Democrats, split between their East Coast establishment wing and their populist Southern and Western wings, went with populist factions, nominating Williams Jennings Bryan, but they ended up losing much of their East Coast constituency as a result.
The Republicans and their nominee, William McKinley, were, in turn, victorious, and with his presidency began a new period in American history. Thus, the stalemate of that period ended, and for almost a century the patterns of partisanship in America worked very differently than they do today. For instance, after McKinley won the White House, Republicans mostly controlled the presidency until Yes, this period still had tense moments of partisan infighting, but partisanship was still fluid enough that the political system was flexible and responsive to shifting allegiances that cropped up.
For instance, when the Great Depression hit in , a large number of longtime Republicans voters were willing to vote for Democrats and kept doing so for a generation. Periodization schemes have their limits in reality, political change is more gradual than such clean demarcations can convey , but putting post-Reconstruction American political history into five relatively distinct periods helps illustrate just how similar our current period is to the Gilded Age — and how far removed we are from the more stable period of politics from to Southern conservatives had been instrumental to Democrats building a supermajority New Deal coalition in the s, but they found themselves increasingly at odds with Northern liberals in the s as civil rights became a national issue.
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