Majority Party Control & Legislator Behavior: Causal Estimates of Party Effects

• In Event: Political Parties and Legislatures

Abstract

Does majority party control affect legislator behavior on the floor of the U.S. Senate? Through the power of the majority leader, majority party agenda setting occurs. We argue that a key mechanism explaining the importance of majority party control is the role of the Senate majority leader. We identify a causal, exogenous effect of party control of the chamber on legislator behavior during floor roll-call voting. We find that majority party control causes legislators’ revealed preferences to shift. The analysis exploits variation in party control caused by numerous unexpected deaths during the 83rd Congress. Nine senators died during this Congress, exogenously changing party control multiple times.

Authors

• Christian R. Grose, University of Southern California

• Nicholas G. Napolio, University of Southern California