Politics to the Extreme: American Political Institutions in the Twenty-First Century

263 Pages·2013·6.386 MB·English

by  Scott A. Frisch, Sean Q. Kelly (eds.)

Politics to the Extreme
This page intentionally left blank
Politics to the Extreme
American Political Institutions in
the Twenty-First Century
Edited by
Scott A. Frisch and Sean Q Kelly
Foreword by
Thomas E. Mann and
Norman J. Ornstein
POLITICSTOTHEEXTREME
Copyright © Scott A. Frisch and Sean Q Kelly, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-32492-4
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-137-36142-4 ISBN 978-1-137-31276-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137312761
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CContents
List of Illustrations vii
AAcknowledgments ix
Foreword xi
Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein
Introduction: Politics to the Extreme xvv
Scott A. Frisch and Sean Q Kelly
Part I Causes and Consequences of Partisan Polarization
1 Appropriations to the Extreme: Partisanship and the
Power of the Purse 3
Geoffrey W. Buhl, Scott A. Frisch, and Sean Q Kelly
2 The Gingrich Senators, the Tea Party Senators, and
Their Effect on the US Senate 23
Sean M. Theriault
3 The Weaponization of Congressional Oversight:
The Politics of the Watchful Eye, 1947–2010 47
David C. W. Parker andMatthew Dull
4 Taking Incivility Seriously: Analyzing Breaches of
Decorum in the US Congress (1891–2012) 71
Lawrence C. Dodd and Scot Schraufnagel
5 Let’s Play Hardball: Congressional Partisanship in
the Television Era 93
Douglas B. Harris
6 Profile Politics: Examining Polarization through
Congressional Member Facebook Pages 117
José Marichal
7 Necessary and Damaging: Presidential Base Electoral
Strategies and Partisan Polarization 135
Lara M. Brown
vi Contents
8 AA Pollarizing Court? AAnallyzing Juddiciall Decisions
in a Red/Blue America 161
Kevin J. McMahon
Part II Bridging the Partisan Divide
9 Growing Apart: “Civilista” Attempts to Bridge the Partisan Rift 187
Frank H. Mackaman
10 Can Polarization Be “Fixed”? California’s Experiment with
the Top-two Primary 205
Seth E. Masket
11 How to Turn Democrats and Republicans into Americans 219
Mickey Edwards
AAbout the Authors 227
Index 233
Illustrations
Figures
0.1 The “Disappearing Center” in the House
of Representatives xviii
0.2 The “Disappearing Center” in the Senate xix
0.3 Party Unity Votes in the House (Solid Line)
and Senate (Dashed Line) xx
0.4 Theoretical Distributions of Voters in an
American-style Two-stage Election xxi
1.1 Intra- and Interparty Distances on Appropriations
Votes in the House 14
1.2 Intra- and Interparty Distances on Appropriations
Votes in the Senate 16
1.3 Interparty difference in the House and Senate
and the Passage of Appropriations Bills 18
2.1 Polarization Scores for the Democrats, Gingrich
Senators, and the Other Republicans 32
2.2 Polarization Scores Based on Roll-Call Votes in 2011 33
2.3 Presidential Support Scores of Democrats, Other Republicans,
Gingrich Senators, and Tea Party Senators 35
2.4 Amendments offered by Democrats,
Other Republicans, Gingrich Senators, and
Tea Party Senators 38
3.1 Congressional Investigations by Chamber, 1947–2010 55
3.2 Congressional Committee Investigations, Days,
and Pages by Chamber, 1947–2010 56
3.3 TheNew York Timess Coverage of High-publicity Congressional
Committee Probes, 1947–2010 60
4.1 Party Polarization and the Differentiation between the
Depolarized and Polarized Spectrums of Conflict 78
4.2 I ncivility and Party Polarization over Time:
rr = 0.58, p < 0.001 82
4.3 Percent of Articles on Incivilities by Partisan Context:
Different Polarization Scenarios 84
viii Illustrations
4.4 P ercent off AArticlles on Incivillities bby Topic: Difffferent
Polarization Scenarios 89
5.1 House “Democratic Message Board” Membership
by Ideological Decile, One Hundred and First Congress. 100
5.2 House Republican “Theme Team” Membership by
Ideological Decile 101
5.3 House Democrats’ Appearances on Hardball by
Ideological Decile 102
5.4 House Republicans’ Appearances on Hardball by
Ideological Decile 102
7.1 Percent of Polarized States, 1872–1892 147
7.2 Percent of Polarized States, 1992–2012 147
7.3 Difference of Means (DW-NOMINATE) in
Congress, 1878–1892 and 1996–2010 149
7.4 Turnout Levels (VAP) in Presidential Elections,
1872–1892 and 1992–2012 150
10.1 Polarization in California 206
10.2 Percentage of Incumbents Challenged from
Within their Party in Primaries, by Office 212
10.3 P ercentages of Incumbents Challenged from
Within their Party in Primaries, by Party 213
10.4 Same-party Runoffs in Assembly, Senate, and
US House Elections 215
Tables
2.1 DeMint Campaign Contributions to Senate
Candidates, 2010 29
2.2 Polarization Scores for Republicans, 2011 31
3.1 The Mean Number and Intensity of Congressional
Investigations in Divided and Unified Government,
1947–2010 57
3.2 Divided Government, Watergate, and the Effect of
Increasing Committee Staff on Congressional
Investigations, 1947–2010 58
3.3 High-publicity Congressional Probes in Divided
and Unified Government, Pre- and Post-1974 61
4.1 Bivariate Correlations between Three Forms of
Incivility and Landmark Productivity in Polarized
versus Depolarized Congresses, 1891–1994 86
7.1 National Electoral Comparison of 1872–1894
and 1992–2012 143
7.2 Party Means by Chamber (DW-NOMINATE),
1878–1892 and 1996–2010 149
9.1 Obstacles and Solutions to Civility 190
Acknowledgments
TTT
he chapters for this book were first written for a conference titled Politicss
to the Extreme: American Political Institutions in the Twenty-First Centuryy
held on the campus of California State University Channel Islands October
17–18, 2012. In the course of our research on a book about the congressio-
nal appropriations process, it was becoming increasingly clear that ideological
and partisan extremism was infiltrating a traditional bastion of bipartisan-
ship. With the encouragement of our campus president, Dr. Richard Rush,
wwe resolved to invite some of the nation’s leading political scientists and
ppolitical commentators to our campus to gauge the extent to which extrem-
ity was affecting American politics generally.
Shortly thereafter, Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein released their book It’ss
Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collidedd
With the New Politics of Extremism. Mann and Ornstein eagerly accepted our
invitation to participate in the discussion, as did Mickey Edwards who was
ppreparing to publish his own book The Parties Versus the People: How to Turnn
Republicans and Democrats into Americans. The core of academics who pre-
sented the papers reflected in this volume enthusiastically agreed to partici-
ppate and contribute their essays, which reflect novel and creative attempts to
understand the causes and consequences of extremity in American politics,
and offer potential solutions for the hyperconflictual state of our contempo-
rary national politics.
It was not our purpose, however, to allow political scientists to simply
“talk among themselves.” We included both political scientists and political
ppractitioners and pundits in our sessions. The “practitioners and pundits”
ensured that the political scientists did not bathe themselves in excessive
and lofty theoretical debate; academic commentators ensured that the papers
wwere properly vetted for academic quality. By combining academic and prac-
tical perspectives in the conference, these chapters reflect both points off
vview. We thank Brian Newman, Jennifer Merolla, Michael Willis, Christian
Grose, Howard Marlowe, Lawrence Becker, Thomas Brunell, Les Francis,
Darry Sragow, Sarah Anderson, Chris den Hartog, Lou Cannon, Rickk
Hasen, Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Timm Herdt, and Joe Mathews for theirr
wwiilllliinnggnneessss ttoo ppllaayy aann iinntteeggrraall ppaarrtt iinn tthhee ccoonnffeerreennccee aanndd pprroovviiddee vvaalluuaabbllee
feedback for the authors.