Topic: Parties, Campaigns, & Elections (page 3)

Congress has experienced much change over the last 50 years, including increased party polarization, committee system reforms, and the rise of social media. The way members communicate with their… Read More

In what will come as a shock to no congressional observer, congressional campaigns are getting more and more expensive. The 2000 election cycle, for example, saw House candidates spend a… Read More

By Gregory Koger Filibustering: the Fourth Veto The U.S. Constitution lays out a system with three veto players: the President, the House of Representatives, and the… Read More

With congressional elections coming up in November, Democrats have focused on blasting what they call a Republican “culture of corruption.” (CNN, January 18, 2006) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi… Read More

It’s (almost) August in Washington which means that Congress (and a good part of the city) will go into recess. This year, however, there’s a twist: The Senate is… Read More

By Ben Highton Political scientists and political analysts have a keen interest in knowing whether the roll call votes Members of Congress (MCs) make concerning significant public policy influence… Read More

In classrooms across the country, economics professors often use the phrase “guns and butter” as an analogy for the competing priorities nations face when deciding how to allocate resources. Read More

Image source: US Census By Charles R. Hunt In a previous LegBranch post, I  assessed some competing theories of how consequential the redistricting process has been to congressional elections… Read More

Our recent piece, “Congress is Broken. But don’t blame polarization,” provoked a number of useful discussions about how political scientists should interpret the results of empirical models like DW-NOMINATE. Read More

Image source By Alexander Fouirnaies and Andrew B. Hall  The Democratic Goal: Electoral Accountability Those in power don’t always do what we want them to do; this is the central… Read More