As republicans take over the senate, they have lost some of their most willing allies on the democratic side

Last night saw the Republican Party retake the Senate, and win their largest majority in the House for more than 60 years. Michele Swers reflects on the results, writing that despite concentrating on state-level issues, many Democrats were dragged down by President Obama’s unpopularity and the national climate. She writes that while the Republican Party may be celebrating their victory today, they have kicked out many of the Democrats that would have been their allies on key issues such as trade and tax reform, meaning that legislative compromises are now even less likely

The nuclear option will increase polarization in the Senate and shift power to the executive branch

The so-called “nuclear option” to limit the filibuster was talked about for years before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finally moved forward with it last week. Michele Swers describes this move as the culmination of years of increasing polarization in the Senate. She goes on to argue that the elimination of the filibuster will only make bipartisan deals more difficult to attain and will ultimately shift power away from the legislative branch and into the executive

Partisan politics over the government debt ceiling has put the US on the verge of economic disaster

With no agreement yet reached by Congress over raising the US government’s borrowing limit, the country will effectively run out of money to pay its debts on October 18th. Michele Swers gives an overview of the lead-up in Congress to the current impasse over the debt ceiling, and how partisans are grasping at procedural tools such as reconciliation, invoking the 14th amendment, or even minting a $1 trillion coin to overcome the deadlock

Cracks in Republican unity between Trump and Congress are already beginning to show

Donald Trump will enter the White House this Friday facing a Republican-controlled House and Senate. Michele L. Swers looks ahead to what we might expect from President Trump and the 115th Congress, writing that while they may initially seek areas of common ground, clashes on issues like the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, foreign policy, and infrastructure spending may mean a rocky relationship lays ahead

Paul Ryan's retirement means the season for legislating is now officially over

This week, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-WI), announced that he would be handing in his gavel at year's end and would not run for reelection. Michele L. Swers writes that before becoming Speaker, Ryan was a well-respected conservative in pursuit of budgetary reform. In a job that he only took reluctantly, his ability to legislate effectively as Speaker has been stymied not only by divisions within Congressional Republicans, but by a President whose agenda has departed greatly from Ryan’s own vision of conservative leadership

Descriptive and Substantive Representation in Congress: Evidence from 80,000 Congressional Inquiries

A vast literature debates the efficacy of descriptive representation in legislatures. Though studies argue it influences how communities are represented through constituency service, they are limited since legislators’ service activities are unobserved. Using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, we collected 88,000 records of communication between members of the U.S. Congress and federal agencies during the 108th–113th Congresses. These legislative interventions allow us to examine members’ “follow‐through” with policy implementation. We find that women, racial/ethnic minorities, and veterans are more likely to work on behalf of constituents with whom they share identities. Including veterans offers leverage in understanding the role of political cleavages and shared experiences. Our findings suggest that shared experiences operate as a critical mechanism for representation, that a lack of political consensus is not necessary for substantive representation, and that the causal relationships identified by experimental work have observable implications in the daily work of Congress.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150606/1/ajps12443-sup-0001-SuppMat.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150606/2/ajps12443.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150606/3/ajps12443_am.pd

Female Representation but Male Rule? Party Competition and the Political Glass Ceiling

A large literature has studied the context that affects womens numerical representation, but few have moved beyond numbers to study the drivers of a gender gap in political influence among elected politicians. Using panel data for the careers of 35.000 Swedish municipal politicians over six election cycles we first document the said gender gap. Women are substantially less likely to be re-elected for office, which is the most important pre-condition for obtaining influential appointments. Turing to the determinants we find that supply factors, primarily family responsibilities, explain some of this gap. Meanwhile, demand factors such as experience, age, education and income do not. Finding that competition between political parties closes the gap, we argue that a negative bias against women among party selectors thrives in contexts where meritocracy is not enforced. Positive correlations between competition and measures of competence for elected politicians of both genders further support this conclusion

The increasing ideological polarization of the Republican and Democratic parties has led to the U.S. government’s shutdown

After lengthy battles over a Continuing Resolution to fund the U.S. government, Congress has failed to reach an agreement, and the government is now in the process of shutting down. Michele Swers looks at how and why these budget fights have become a familiar part of Congressional politics in America. She argues that the increasing ideological polarization of the Republican and Democratic parties is a major contributor to their inability to bridge policy divides. This is exacerbated in that most members of Congress represent seats that are very safe for their party, meaning that they are more afraid of losing to an ideologically extreme primary challenger than suffering a defeat in an election