Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America

Cambridge University Press, 4/6/2017
EAN 9781107095090, ISBN10: 1107095093

Hardcover, 406 pages, 23.5 x 15.9 x 3.2 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

Many political observers have expressed doubts as to whether America's leaders are up to the task of addressing major policy challenges. Yet much of the critical commentary lacks grounding in the systematic analysis of the core institutions of the American political system including elections, representation, and the law-making process. Governing in a Polarized Age brings together more than a dozen leading scholars to provide an in-depth examination of representation and legislative performance. Drawing upon the seminal work of David Mayhew as a point of departure, these essays explore the dynamics of incumbency advantage in today's polarized Congress, asking whether the focus on individual re-election that was the hallmark of Mayhew's ground-breaking book, Congress: The Electoral Connection, remains useful for understanding today's Congress. The essays link the study of elections with close analysis of changes in party organization and with a series of systematic assessments of the quality of legislative performance.

1. Introduction
Part I. Political Representation and Democratic Accountability
2. The electoral connection, age 40 R. Douglas Arnold
3. The electoral connection, then and now Gary Jacobson
4. The congressional incumbency advantage over sixty years
measurement, trends, and implications Robert S. Erikson
5. A baseline for incumbency effects Christopher Achen
Part II. Continuity and Change in Party Organizations
6. Legislative parties in an era of alternating majorities Frances E. Lee
7. Parties within parties
parties, factions, and coordinated politics, 1900–80 John Mark Hansen, Shigeo Hirano and James M. Snyder, Jr
8. Where measures meet history
party polarization during the New Deal and Fair Deal Joshua D. Clinton, Ira Katznelson and John S. Lapinski
Part III. Partisanship and Governmental Performance
9. Polarized we govern? Sarah Binder
10. What has Congress done? Stephen Ansolabehere, Maxwell Palmer and Benjamin Schneer
11. Can Congress do policy analysis? The politics of problem solving on Capitol Hill Eric M. Patashnik and Justin Peck
12. Studying contingency systematically Katherine Levine Einstein and Jennifer Hochschild
13. Majoritarianism, majoritarian tension, and the Reed revolution Keith Krehbiel
Part IV. Conclusions
14. Intensified partisanship in congress
institutional effects David E. Price
15. The origins of Congress
The Electoral Connection David R. Mayhew.