Parties, Pivots and Roll-Call Votes in Congress, 1887-2016

• In Event: Parties and Ideologies in American Politics

Abstract

This project demonstrates how the loci of power in Congress have shifted over time by systematically identifying legislators who are pivotal in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. We expand upon Krehbiel’s key insight that institutional rules like the veto and filibuster yield “pivot points." We extend his original account by considering additional intraparty rules, such as the so-called "Hastert rule," into a larger set of “party pivot points.” We estimate the position of these points for each Congress from 1887 to 2016 and visualize the deviation between our estimated pivots and observed final passage votes on legislation during the period.

Authors

• John H. Aldrich, Duke University

• Michelle Whyman, Duke University