Parties in Congress
Do parties play an important role in Congress?
YES:
Leadership run by parties
Committees in congress organised by parties
Partisanship ensures stronger party discipline
Party determines voting in Congress, more or less
Impossible(?) to be elected to Congress as an independent (only 2 in last congress)
NO:
Views of constituents > party considerations. Especially for HoR members
Parties don't control candidate selection.
Both parties made of ideological factions that compete with party cohesion
Executive branch has "sticks or carrots" that incentivise party discipline
Congressional leadership fairly impotent in face of opposition.
Party leadership:
In both chambers, members of each party elect leader designated as majority/minority leaders
depending on the party's status.
HoR:
Speaker elected by whole house, drawn from majority party. Runs day-2-day business. Speaker is
partisan + organisational figure that can refer bills to committees, appoint members of House Rules
Committee, enforce interpretted rules of the House and apointing select/conference committee chairs.
If speaker not from president's party, they become "leader of the official opposition".
EG:
Paul Ryan republican speaker for Democratic president Obama 2016.
Senate:
President Pro Tempore:
Figurehead position given to longest-serving member of majority party.
Main role is to preside over Senate in absense of VP. De facto, most junior members of majority party are
seen presiding over Senate's daily business.
Increased partisanship:
Votes in Congress used to involved a group of D&Rs voting against another group of D&Rs.
Social Republicans and Conservative Democrats v. Liberal Democrats and RINOs.
Conservative Democrats and RINOs become rare.
2010 midterms: 9 senate centrists: 4 retired, 2 defeated primaries, 2 defeated GE, 1 died.
1982 - Liberal Senate democrat Ted Kennedy and Conservative Democrat Ed Zorinsky rarely voted
together, but both democrat.
1982 - RINO Lowell Weicker and Arch-Conservative Strom Thurmond rarely voted together, but both
republicans.
35 democrats were more conservative than Weicker, and 23 republicans were more liberal than
Do parties play an important role in Congress?
YES:
Leadership run by parties
Committees in congress organised by parties
Partisanship ensures stronger party discipline
Party determines voting in Congress, more or less
Impossible(?) to be elected to Congress as an independent (only 2 in last congress)
NO:
Views of constituents > party considerations. Especially for HoR members
Parties don't control candidate selection.
Both parties made of ideological factions that compete with party cohesion
Executive branch has "sticks or carrots" that incentivise party discipline
Congressional leadership fairly impotent in face of opposition.
Party leadership:
In both chambers, members of each party elect leader designated as majority/minority leaders
depending on the party's status.
HoR:
Speaker elected by whole house, drawn from majority party. Runs day-2-day business. Speaker is
partisan + organisational figure that can refer bills to committees, appoint members of House Rules
Committee, enforce interpretted rules of the House and apointing select/conference committee chairs.
If speaker not from president's party, they become "leader of the official opposition".
EG:
Paul Ryan republican speaker for Democratic president Obama 2016.
Senate:
President Pro Tempore:
Figurehead position given to longest-serving member of majority party.
Main role is to preside over Senate in absense of VP. De facto, most junior members of majority party are
seen presiding over Senate's daily business.
Increased partisanship:
Votes in Congress used to involved a group of D&Rs voting against another group of D&Rs.
Social Republicans and Conservative Democrats v. Liberal Democrats and RINOs.
Conservative Democrats and RINOs become rare.
2010 midterms: 9 senate centrists: 4 retired, 2 defeated primaries, 2 defeated GE, 1 died.
1982 - Liberal Senate democrat Ted Kennedy and Conservative Democrat Ed Zorinsky rarely voted
together, but both democrat.
1982 - RINO Lowell Weicker and Arch-Conservative Strom Thurmond rarely voted together, but both
republicans.
35 democrats were more conservative than Weicker, and 23 republicans were more liberal than
