Tarnishing Opponents, Polarizing Congress: The House Minority Party and the Construction of the Roll-Call Record

• Autores: William T. Egar
• Localización: Legislative studies quarterly, ISSN 0362-9805, Vol. 41, N. 4, 2016, págs. 935-964
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Existing research on congressional parties tends to focus almost exclusively on the majority party. I argue that the inattention to the House minority party hampers our understanding of the construction of the roll-call record and, consequently, our understanding of the sources of polarization in congressional voting. Employing an original data set of House members' requests for recorded votes between 1995 and 2010, I demonstrate that votes demanded by the minority party are disproportionately divisive and partisan and make Congress appear considerably more polarized based on commonly used measures. Moreover, minority-requested votes make vulnerable members of the majority appear more partisan and ideologically extreme.