Insecure Majorities - by Frances E Lee (Paperback)

About the Book

Insecure Majorities offers a new and controversial perspective on the rise of Congressional party conflict. As the Republicans and Democrats continue to angle for competitive advantage, their efforts have gotten more extensive and more polished...and Congress has gotten more confrontational and gridlocked. This state of affairs usually has been ascribed to the growing ideological gulf between the two political parties. Lee s book offers the most comprehensive argument yet made for an alternative explanation which will supplement or replace that conventional wisdom. For a half century before 1980 the Democrats were effectively the majority party, more often than not controlling the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. That has now changed, with almost every US. election offering the prospect of a change of party control of one of those institutions. Lee argues that these changed competitive circumstances have dramatically altered political incentives in Washington in far-reaching ways. With party control of the government hanging in the balance, Congress members attention on the quest for partisan political advantage is intense. Members and leaders continually work to promote their own party s image and undercut that of the opposition. Party image-making involves a perpetual hunt for issues that can score political points by putting the opposition party on the wrong side of public opinion. In making her case, Lee brings an impressive range of qualitative and quantitative evidence to bear, including original interviews, data on staffing levels and functions, roll-call votes in the House and Senate, and material showing how party conflicts in state legislatures have mirrored this trend. Lee concludes that Congress s difficulties legislating are likely to be with us as long as control of government remains in reach for both parties. Put simply, the two parties often have more to gain by distinguishing themselves from the opposition or putting them on the defensive than by negotiating new laws."

Book Synopsis

As Democrats and Republicans continue to vie for political advantage, Congress remains paralyzed by partisan conflict. That the last two decades have seen some of the least productive Congresses in recent history is usually explained by the growing ideological gulf between the parties, but this explanation misses another fundamental factor influencing the dynamic. In contrast to politics through most of the twentieth century, the contemporary Democratic and Republican parties compete for control of Congress at relative parity, and this has dramatically changed the parties' incentives and strategies in ways that have driven the contentious partisanship characteristic of contemporary American politics.

With Insecure Majorities, Frances E. Lee offers a controversial new perspective on the rise of congressional party conflict, showing how the shift in competitive circumstances has had a profound impact on how Democrats and Republicans interact. For nearly half a century, Democrats were the majority party, usually maintaining control of the presidency, the House, and the Senate. Republicans did not stand much chance of winning majority status, and Democrats could not conceive of losing it. Under such uncompetitive conditions, scant collective action was exerted by either party toward building or preserving a majority. Beginning in the 1980s, that changed, and most elections since have offered the prospect of a change of party control. Lee shows, through an impressive range of interviews and analysis, how competition for control of the government drives members of both parties to participate in actions that promote their own party's image and undercut that of the opposition, including the perpetual hunt for issues that can score political points by putting the opposing party on the wrong side of public opinion. More often than not, this strategy stands in the way of productive bipartisan cooperation-and it is also unlikely to change as long as control of the government remains within reach for both parties.

Review Quotes

"Frances Lee has published another tour de force. Building upon her argument in Beyond Ideology (2009) (and the other literature from the last few years surrounding it), she adds an important wrinkle into the current divide between the parties in Congress. . . . Lee marshals compelling evidence at the macro level to show how insecure majorities make governing exceedingly difficult." -- "Perspectives on Politics"

"I have great admiration for what Frances Lee has accomplished in Insecure Majorities. Her stimulating arguments and rich data will spark considerable theoretical debate and scholarly probing, as witnessed in my response here. Insecure Majorities is a landmark study that will provoke scholarly debate for years to come."-- "Congress & the Presidency"

"Insecure Majorities is a major contribution to our understanding of Congress and American national politics. Lee marshals an impressive array of evidence to convincingly argue that increasing ideological distance between the parties is not the only--or even the most important--factor driving the increased partisan conflict and changes in party strategy we have seen over the past three decades. Her cogent, engaging account of the nature of contemporary partisan conflict in Congress will be widely read and discussed beyond the field."--Tracy Sulkin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"With Insecure Majorities, Lee explores one of the most important questions for understanding American national politics today: how can we explain the emergence of the highly partisan contemporary Congress? With creativity and analytical rigor, she offers a compelling alternative to the conventional wisdom that increased ideological polarization has driven the conflict between the congressional parties. Lee argues instead that the 'struggle for institutional power' increases incentives for highly partisan behavior and lowers incentives for legislating solutions."--Sarah Binder, George Washington University and the Brookings Institution

About the Author

Frances E. Lee is professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. She is the author of three books, most recently Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the US Senate, also published by the University of Chicago Press.