"The Limits of Party: Congress & Lawmaking in a Polarized Era" shows that much policymaking commentary is wrong. Despite more partisan processes, legislative outcomes have not changed: they are just as bipartisan & (un)productive as usual
1/n
amazon.com/Limits-Party-C…
Although Congress passes fewer bills, they pass more pages of legislation.

Out of 265 majority party priority items since 1985, congressional majorities have failed on 47% of them, mostly succeed on 21% of them, & achieved partial success on the rest.
amazon.com/Limits-Party-C…
No matter whether you consider all bills that pass Congress, only landmark legislation, or only majority party priorities, most of what passes generates support from minority party legislators & leaders. The path commentators expect, rolling over the opposition party, is rare.
When majority parties fail to pass their top policy agenda items, it is due to minority party opposition 47% of the time (primarily filibuster). 53% of the time it is due to failure to satisfy intra-party disagreement (despite polarized voting), often with no proposal developed
When majority parties succeed in their top agenda items, it is usually because they introduce uncontroversial proposals (38% of successes) or back down from their most controversial components (54%). There are only 19 cases (14% of successes) where they steamrolled the minority.
Even when Congress does pass something, more members express blame for losing or not getting all they wanted than positively claim credit, with little change over time (though party leaders are quoted more often). Unorthodox lawmaking is more common, but hasn't increased success.
Republican majorities have commonly failed on entitlement reforms. Democratic majorities have failed on diverse issues, especially on the environmental & trade. But both have succeeded often & through the same means (but I would add that the results are mostly liberal policies).
We remember the steamrolls because they are important (eg ACA, TCJA) but also because party fights generate more news coverage. They are rare. We also remember the failures due to minority opposition more than the bills that are never developed due to intra-party disagreements.
I would add that periods of attempted steamrolls (1993, 2009, 2017) are often followed by electoral shellacking.

This must-read book has big implications for a possible new Dem majority:
amazon.com/Limits-Party-C…

Most policy victories still come from consensus & compromise.
?s this raises for a possible Dem 2021:
1) What initiatives may fail due to intra-party disagreement? Could health, tax, & climate bills fall apart early?
2) What initiatives will they prioritize for easier bipartisan wins?
3) Where will they back down to get something through?

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More from @MattGrossmann

19 Oct
Democrats are set to gain from increasing diversity & generational change over time. Even assuming some conservative trends with age, electorate population replacement should mean substantial Democratic gains, especially if young people retain their lean.
Even assuming that younger generations become more conservative with age, Democrats would gain several swing states based on increasing diversity & moderated generational replacement effects. This projection suggests strong effects in the Electoral College
On demographics, my questions are:
1) What if white voters become more Republican as a function of increasing racial diversity?
2) What if education is just a relative, not absolute effect (eg "some college" voters become more Rep as college degrees increase)?
@rp_griffin
Read 4 tweets
18 Oct
Expected to like "WEIRDest People in the World" more than I did:
amazon.com/dp/0374173222/…
A splitter when it comes to contemporary life (most evidence is culturally & temporally specific) & a lumper on human history (mostly unidimensional development with a few big causes)
1/n
No ? biased social science samples are erroneously generalized globally & in human history, but that's not an easy problem to escape. Also clear cultural development is important, but that means there are often many long-term & proximal contextual & individual causes of behavior
Unlikely there is a generic effect of complex variables like education or religion; studies showing long-term associations with spread of churches are useful but not definitive. Individualism & nepotism are important global variations, but correlated with many other things
Read 4 tweets
1 Oct
Corporate personnel experts led the adoption & expansion of affirmative action recruitment & evaluation, diversity training, work/life balance policies, & harassment grievance procedures, with law & movements following

Finished this great book suggestion:
amazon.com/Inventing-Equa…
Who codified Affirmative Action policies & procedures? Lockheed Martin
Companies with federal contracts were vaguely pushed to improve & they developed the recruiting, hiring, & supervisor assessment tools, diffusing them so they were accepted by law as key good faith efforts 2/n
The personnel profession found new uses for their union-era procedures as private unions declined, vastly increasing their workforce (& with more women). In turn, they became advocates & institutional homes for more equal opportunity programs & enlarging their focus to women 3/n
Read 7 tweets
1 Oct
Republicans & Democrats represent different interest group sectors & economic classes. We have organized elite competition, not oligarchy. But that still provides multiple paths for unequal public class influence

My latest with @wsisaac & Zuhaib Mahmood:
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.108…
Republican leaders' positions on policy are more closely associated with the opinions of the upper class (top 10%) on economic policy. Democratic leaders' positions more closely match those of the middle class
#polisciresearch
journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.108… Image
Rep & Dem positions are more strongly & consistently associated with interest group positions across policy areas than with public classes. Reps & business groups are aligned; Dems & advocacy groups are aligned; Dems are negatively aligned with business, Reps with advocacy groups Image
Read 5 tweets
30 Sep
CBS/YouGov post-debate poll had Biden winning 48-41% but more Reps calling it a tie (& improved opinion of Biden & decreased of Trump)

CNN/SSRS had Biden winning 60-28%! That's a big difference. Is it due to repeatedly polled (& solid) YouGov panelists? Other method differences?
538/Ipsos has a post-debate result closer to CNN. 60-33% Biden on best performance, but little movement on favorability or candidate preferences
projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-biden-de…
DFP poll on who won the debate is 52-39% Biden (weighted to likely voters):
vox.com/2020/9/30/2149…
Average margin across the four "who won" polls was +20 Biden (including the CNN phone poll where more Dems responded). But there's not much sign of a likely race shake up.
Read 5 tweets
30 Sep
Whether, how much, & on what basis to include the social sciences at the National Science Foundation has been politicized from the beginning, with the Right worried about waste & ideology & social scientists responding with rigor & ties to natural science
amazon.com/Social-Science…
Scientists & politicians questioned whether the social sciences were driven by ideological values & whether they could be sciences repeatedly; to insulate, NSF prioritized those most closely tied to biology & those involving the most math & computers (causing concern on the left)
Social science (& political science in particular) were expanded via political pressure from liberals in 60s to help solve social problems, but both applied efforts & educational curricula drew conservative & scientist ire in 70s; specific projects highlighted as wasteful & lefty
Read 4 tweets

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