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- Title
Tarnishing Opponents, Polarizing Congress: The House Minority Party and the Construction of the Roll-Call Record.
- Authors
Egar, William T.
- Abstract
Existing research on congressional parties tends to focus almost exclusively on the majority party. I argue that the inattention to the House minority party hampers our understanding of the construction of the roll-call record and, consequently, our understanding of the sources of polarization in congressional voting. Employing an original data set of House members' requests for recorded votes between 1995 and 2010, I demonstrate that votes demanded by the minority party are disproportionately divisive and partisan and make Congress appear considerably more polarized based on commonly used measures. Moreover, minority-requested votes make vulnerable members of the majority appear more partisan and ideologically extreme.
- Subjects
MINORITY government; VOTING; UNITED States. Congress; VOTERS; ELECTIONS
- Publication
Legislative Studies Quarterly, 2016, Vol 41, Issue 4, p935
- ISSN
0362-9805
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/lsq.12135