A House Divided? Roll Calls, Polarization, and Policy Differences in the U.S. House, 1877–2011

Abstract

The study of political conflict in legislatures is fundamental to understanding the nature of governance, but also difficult because of changes in membership and the issues addressed over time. Focusing on the enduring issue of civil rights in the United States since Reconstruction, we show that using current methods and measures to characterize elite ideological disagreements makes it hard to interpret or reconcile the conflicts with historical understandings because of their failure to adequately account for the policies being voted upon and the consequences of the iterative lawmaking process. Incorporating information about the policies being voted upon provides a starkly different portrait of elite conflict-not only are contemporary parties relatively less divided than is commonly thought, but the conflict occurs in a smaller, and more liberal, portion of the policy space. These findings have important implications for a broad range of work that uses elite actions to compare political conflict/polarization across time.

The Exceptionalism of the Open Space Issue in American Politics*

“…In addition, support for other issues, such as nuclear power, that are often categorized under environmental policy may defy partisan expectations as well. This point is consistent with the argument scholars made recently regarding civil rights policy wherein they show that content of the specific policy in question is more crucial to understanding elite behavior than broad characterizations and blanket assertions (Bateman, Clinton, and Lapinski, ).…”

“…There is obviously benefit in using shorthand when discussing the plethora of public policies, but broad characterizations may miss important nuances. One very recent illustration shows how broad characterizations of party polarization misinterpret important aspects of civil rights policy (Bateman, Clinton, and Lapinski, ). Thus, differentiating open space issues from other environmental issues can provide a useful illustration of the benefits of examining specific issue types rather than broad categories.…”

Me, My Echo Chamber, and I

“…where x V iz+I deo,u and x I deo+Rec,u are binary variables that indicate user u's experimental treatment 4 , β V iz+I deo and β I deo+Rec are their coefficients, respectively, β 0 is the intercept, and ϵ u is the error term. Table 2 shows the average treatment effects of Viz+Ideo and Ideo+Rec for each of the four questions, relative to Viz.…”

“…While the historical roots of polarized politics in America run centuries deep [4], the rise of digital media and other online discourse platforms have led researchers to investigate how political polarization manifests and evolves in these more modern contexts. For example, Sunstein highlighted how "echo chambers" in online settings -where individuals with similar political views assemble to discuss particular issues -can enable mutually-reinforcing opinions to shift individual perspectives towards poles of greater extremity [24].…”

Framing and immigration through the trump era

“…While the politics of immigration reform have never been harmonious, they have deteriorated even more in recent years. This could be due in large part to the fact that Congress, today, is extremely polarized, producing unprecedented gridlock and legislative inaction particularly on divisive issues such as immigration (Bateman, Clinton, & Lapinski, ; Binder, ; Brady, Han, & Pope, ; Hetherington, ; Theriault, ). In addition to polarization in Congress, the literature also suggests that more ideological extremists are winning congressional elections (Moskowitz, Rogowski, & Snyder, n.d.).…”