Gregory Koger - Strategic Party Government: Why Winning Trumps Ideology

Chicago Studies in American Politics

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GREGORY KOGER

MATTHEW J. LEBO

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2017 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2017.

Printed in the United States of America

26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-42457-6 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-42460-6 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-42474-3 (e-book)

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226424743.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Koger, Gregory, author. | Lebo, Matthew J., author.

Title: Strategic party government : why winning trumps ideology / Gregory Koger and Matthew J. Lebo.

Other titles: Chicago studies in American politics.

Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2016. | Series: Chicago studies in American politics.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016024713 | ISBN 9780226424576 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226424606 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226424743 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Political partiesUnited States. | United StatesPolitics and government2009

Classification: LCC JK2265 .K644 2016 | DDC 328.73/0769dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024713

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (Permanence of Paper).

This book provides a new chapter in a classic conversation. One of the very first political science books, Woodrow Wilsons Congressional Government, lamented the weak state of parties in the House and Senate compared to the British House of Commons. From 1885 to 2016, scholars have understood that legislators determine the role of parties in their chambers and that their choices vary over time and across chambers.

Over the last forty years, there has been a robust conversation about congressional parties as scholars have tried to understand the forces at work in Congress. This book builds on the work of neoinstitutionalist scholars like Barbara Sinclair, John Aldrich, David Rohde, Keith Krehbiel, Gary Cox, and Mat McCubbins. Like these leading scholars, we seek to provide an account of varying party influence grounded in legislators goals and strategies. We emphasize the role of electoral competition and strategic interaction to explain why legislators will cooperate with their party leaders even when they disagree with each other on policy issues.

Our account benefits from our colleagues research, but also from the last ten years of congressional partisanship. While scholars were debating whether parties matter, the US Congress became increasingly partisan and an ever-increasing share of legislators attention has been focused on helping their party succeed in the next election. This partisan competition is the game we set out to explain, but with an account that also explains how and why legislative parties change over time. Our initial insight was to apply new time series techniques to classic measures of congressional partisanship, which led to a new model of congressional parties and fresh ideas to test.

This project has had a long incubation period. Our partnership began over umbrella drinks at Trader Vics in the Palmer House Hilton and has carried us across the country. Along the way, we have accumulated a vast number of debts. First, we appreciate the scholars who have coauthored chapters of this book: Jamie Carson, Ellen Key, and Everett Young. Our unindicted coauthor is Ben Bishin, who introduced us, has been a most generous commenter on this manuscript, and has been a great friend and colleague throughout the process. We also appreciate the research assistance of Marie Courtemanche, Justine DElia, Taylor Grant, April Johnson, Maxwell Mak, Adam McGlynn, Andrew OGeen, David Perkins, Andrew Sidman, Claire Catotti, and Chris Weber. Among the many scholars who have provided comments, we especially appreciate Kathleen Bawn, Hans Noel, Gary Cox, Jeff Jenkins, Nate Monroe, Arthur Lupia, Chris den Hartog, Justin Buchler, Jeff Grynaviski, Gary Jacobson, Laurel Harbridge, Phil Paolino, Doug Roscoe, Stanley Feldman, and seminar audiences at Yale, Ohio State University, Washington University, the University of Georgia, Texas A&M, the University of Miami, Stony Brook University, and miniconferences hosted by UWWisconsin, Duke (Senate parties), and an Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) miniconference at the June 2005 Canadian Political Science Association meeting in London, Ontario. We especially appreciate John Aldrich, David Rohde, and the Political Institutions and Public Choice Program at Duke University for hosting us for a seminar and book discussion. All remaining errors are our own, except for those attributable to Hans Noel.