Endogenous Polarization? The Rise of Safe Seats and the Decline of Party Discipline in the U.S. Congress

• In Event: Electoral and Personal Roots of Representation in Legislatures

Brief Overview

We argue and show that the rising number of safe U.S. House districts leads to the greater divergence of legislator preferences not just between but also within parties, which endogenously weakens party discipline alongside polarization.

Authors

• Alexander Kustov, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Frances Rosenbluth, Yale University

• Ian Shapiro, Yale University

• Maikol Cerda, Yale University

• Akhil Rajan, Yale University