Governing in a Polarized Age
Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America

This volume provides an in-depth examination of representation and legislative performance in contemporary American politics.

Alan S. Gerber (Edited by), Eric Schickler (Edited by)

9781107479074, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2016

406 pages, 62 b/w illus. 47 tables
22.5 x 14.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.54 kg

'Overall, Governing in a Polarized Age is focused on representation and the impact of a member's credit claiming, advertising, and position taking on Congress (specifically) and the executive branch (generally).' Jacob R. Straus, Congress and the Presidency

Many political observers have expressed doubts as to whether America's leaders are up to the task of addressing major policy challenges. Yet much of the critical commentary lacks grounding in the systematic analysis of the core institutions of the American political system including elections, representation, and the law-making process. Governing in a Polarized Age brings together more than a dozen leading scholars to provide an in-depth examination of representation and legislative performance. Drawing upon the seminal work of David Mayhew as a point of departure, these essays explore the dynamics of incumbency advantage in today's polarized Congress, asking whether the focus on individual re-election that was the hallmark of Mayhew's ground-breaking book, Congress: The Electoral Connection, remains useful for understanding today's Congress. The essays link the study of elections with close analysis of changes in party organization and with a series of systematic assessments of the quality of legislative performance.

1. Introduction
Part I. Political Representation and Democratic Accountability: 2. The electoral connection, age 40 R. Douglas Arnold
3. The electoral connection, then and now Gary Jacobson
4. The congressional incumbency advantage over sixty years: measurement, trends, and implications Robert S. Erikson
5. A baseline for incumbency effects Christopher Achen
Part II. Continuity and Change in Party Organizations: 6. Legislative parties in an era of alternating majorities Frances E. Lee
7. Parties within parties: parties, factions, and coordinated politics, 1900–80 John Mark Hansen, Shigeo Hirano and James M. Snyder, Jr
8. Where measures meet history: party polarization during the New Deal and Fair Deal Joshua D. Clinton, Ira Katznelson and John S. Lapinski
Part III. Partisanship and Governmental Performance: 9. Polarized we govern? Sarah Binder
10. What has Congress done? Stephen Ansolabehere, Maxwell Palmer and Benjamin Schneer
11. Can Congress do policy analysis? The politics of problem solving on Capitol Hill Eric M. Patashnik and Justin Peck
12. Studying contingency systematically Katherine Levine Einstein and Jennifer Hochschild
13. Majoritarianism, majoritarian tension, and the Reed revolution Keith Krehbiel
Part IV. Conclusions: 14. Intensified partisanship in congress: institutional effects David E. Price
15. The origins of Congress: The Electoral Connection David R. Mayhew.

Subject Areas: Political leaders & leadership [JPHL], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]