Amercia government:
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Set #1: Party voting
1. Whereas most scholars acknowledge that members have multiple goals, many nevertheless argue that “reelection” is the main pursuit of members of Congress. Why is reelection often considered the primary goal of members? Please provide explanation based on facts and logic, and support your answer with examples.
2. Can you think of ways in which members’ reelection, influence, and policy goals might come into conflict? How might such conflicts affect members’ partisan voting behavior? Please provide specific examples of such cases.
In the 1950s, many Democratic members of Congress were “cross-pressured” by the differing interests and ideological orientations of their congressional districts and the interests and ideological orientations of their national parties. As a result of these cross-pressures and the consequent divisions within the majority party, party voting in the House and Senate declined from the 1950s to the 1970s.
https://wwnorton.com/college/polisci/american-government12/full/img/principles/05_Party_Votes_1953_1974.001.jpg
Source: CQ Almanac 2004 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2005), p. B-21.
The contemporary Congress — both the House and Senate — has become much more partisan since the 1980s. With more consistently partisan districts and states, members’ re-election goals, policy preferences, and interest in gaining influence provide increasingly consonant pressures to support party initiatives.
https://wwnorton.com/college/polisci/american-government12/full/img/principles/05_Party_Votes_1969_2008.001.jpg
Source: Shawn Zeller, “2008 Vote Studies: Party Unity — Parties Dig in Deep on a Fractured Hill” CQ Weekly December 15, 2008, p. 3332, 3338.
https://wwnorton.com/college/polisci/american-government12/full/img/principles/05_Congressional_Party_Unity_1969_2008.001.jpg
Source: Shawn Zeller, “2008 Vote Studies: Party Unity — Parties Dig in Deep on a Fractured Hill” CQ Weekly December 15, 2008, p. 3332, 3338.
Thinking of the legislative parties in the House and Senate as organizations designed to solve collective-action problems that arise among goal-oriented members of Congress, answer the following questions:
3. What are the incentives for members of Congress to be free riders in party efforts? Do some members of Congress have greater incentives to free ride than others? Please begin with explaining the concepts of collective-action problem and free riders. Please provide specific examples to support your answer.
4. How might party leaders and organizations help alleviate or “solve” these collective-action problems?
5. How can the collective-action and institution principles be applied to explain the changes in party voting illustrated in the preceding figures?
Citations
Cooper, Joseph, and David W. Brady, “Institutional Context and Leadership Style: The House from Cannon to Rayburn” American Political Science Review 75 (1981) 411-25.
CQ Almanac 2004 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2005).Fenno, Richard F., Jr., Congressmen in Committees. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.
Rohde, David W. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Zeller, Shawn, “2008 Vote Studies: Party Unity — Parties Dig in Deep on a Fractured Hill” CQ Weekly December 15, 2008, pp. 3332, 3338.