Daniel DiSalvo

Party Factions in Congress

This essay considers the role of intraparty factions in the twentieth-century American Congress. Factions are integral players in Congress that shape members’ preferences, develop policy agendas, and push those agendas on Capitol Hill. In pursuing their objectives, factions will often strive to redistribute power in Congress—sometimes going so far as to change congressional rules to enhance their position. Factions are thus key actors in the creation and destruction of congressional “regimes”—the various structures and practices by which power is concentrated or dispersed in both chambers. The analysis of factions and their strategies takes us beyond the debate about whether parties matter. What happens within the parties at important moments can be as consequential as what the parties themselves do. The activity of factions has profound implications not only for the larger parties in which they reside, but also for the way Congress functions as a whole.

Legislative Coalitions, Polarization, and the U.S. Senate

In recent years, scholars have marshaled a vast amount of evidence to show that the congressional parties are increasingly polarized. However, David Mayhew demonstrated that most standard legislative enactments in the second half of the twentieth century passed with the support of large majorities of both parties. This article investigates whether the partisan polarization of the past two decades has crept into the temple of consensual lawmaking that hitherto characterized Senate action on final passage votes. The findings reveal that unilateral votes by one party are better explained by unified government than the rise of partisan polarization. In that light, the import of polarization may be overstated. Institutional features of the political system, coupled with the electoral incentives of lawmakers, offset ideological polarization at the final passage stage of important legislation.

Back to the Future: Ongoing Strife among Leftist Intellectuals

This essay reviews two books: Todd Gitlins Intellectuals and the Flag and Eric Lotts The Disappearing Liberal Intellectual. The views of Gitlin and Lott represent a broad and contrasting section of contemporary left-wing opinion. The conflict between them raises deep and unresolved questions about the Lefts status in America. The ongoing strife among intellectuals on the left suggests that the Democratic Party has a long way to go before embracing a set of core principles that can unite the party, forge a new coalition, and provide a rationale for governing.