The majority in McCutcheon invokes the fact that other institutions — namely, Congress and/or the FEC — have the power to fill any regulatory gaps that might emerge from the Court’s striking down the aggregate contribution limits. Some critics of… Continue reading

The Wall Street Journal’s online blog has posted initial reactions to the decision here.  Here is my contribution: The inevitable sky-is-falling reactions that will surely greet this 5-4 decision in many quarters are likely to be wrong.  First, the… Continue reading

Suggestions include a two-year budget; restoring the role of the committee process; five-day work weeks in DC; forums for bipartisan communication within Congress and between  Congress and the White House; independent districting commissions.  See this op-ed in the Boston Globe.

In a good piece, Professor Seth Masket takes issue with my argument that political power and the political parties today are highly fragmented.  Instead, he suggests we ought to see the parties more as “networked:” The modern American party… Continue reading

In my Washington Post essay I blogged about recently here, I argued that political fragmentation of the political parties is the danger to focus on if we are worried about the capacity of our political institutions to govern effectively. … Continue reading

As the final piece in its terrific series on political polarization, the Washington Post/Monkey Cage has published an essay of mine, which can be found here. My launching off point is the view that the extreme polarization of the political… Continue reading

Bill Maher’s announcement that he will use his HBO show to try to defeat a House incumbent will soon become Exhibit A for those defending the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision.  Why? Because the restrictions on corporate election spending… Continue reading

The Commission’s report is one of the most effective and credible documents on meaningful voting reform issued in many years.  I attribute much of that effectiveness to the original decision of how to design the Commission itself.  It was not… Continue reading

Former White House Counsel Robert Bauer, distinguished scholar in residence and senior lecturer at NYU School of Law, and NYU Professor Sally Katzen, former deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, recently hosted in… Continue reading

In addition to North Carolina’s package of changes to its voting laws, the same state legislature has been sued for unconstitutionally using race to gerrymander its state election districts.  Though this racial gerrymandering issue has gotten less attention in the… Continue reading

The debate over whether the rise of increasingly safe seats for members of Congress contributes to political polarization remains ongoing.  Political scientists, through empirical studies, tend to conclude there is no significant contribution.  On the ground political actors often assert… Continue reading

The Supreme Court of India held last week that voters have a constitutional right in elections to vote “none of the above.”   The Court concluded that the right to reject candidates is the same as the right to vote for… Continue reading

So argues an important Wall Street Journal piece today based on California’s experience with its new, “Top-Two” primary system in the 2012 elections.  Laced with quotes from political insiders, including Republican members of California’s congressional delegation, the argument is that… Continue reading

For those of you who teach (as I do) the amazing one-vote, one-person case of Lucas v. The Forty-Fourth General Assembly of the State of Colorado, or for others wishing to understand urban v. rural conflicts in the design of… Continue reading