Category Archives: political parties

“Playing Cards in a Hurricane: Party Reform in an Age of Polarization”

January 18, 2017, 9:10 pmpolitical parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Heather Gerken has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Houston Law Review). Here is the abstract: In his Frankel Lecture, “Outsourcing Politics: The Hostile Takeovers of Our Hollowed Out Parties,” Sam Issacharoff suggests that legal changes have systematically disabled the… Continue reading

“Outsourcing Politics: The Hostile Takeovers of Our Hollowed out Political Parties”

December 23, 2016, 1:31 pmcampaigns, political partiesRick Hasen

Sam Issacharoff has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Houston Law Review). Here is the abstract: In 2016, both the Republicans and Democrats experienced efforts at hostile takeover of their presidential campaigns. On the Republican side of the ledger, the… Continue reading

Hawaii Democrats and Montana Republicans File Cert Petitions Challenging Mandatory Open Primaries

December 21, 2016, 2:30 pmpolitical parties, primaries, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Hawaii petition Montana petition This could well get taken up by the new Supreme Court.

Watch Video of NYU Forum on “A New American Political System?”

December 19, 2016, 3:04 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, political partiesRick Hasen

This was a great conference. Video courtesy of CSPAN: Vice President Biden Keynote Viability of Third Parties (Ginsberg, Keating, Pildes) Role of Media in the 2016 Election (Marcus, Psaki) Technology in Political Campaigns (Goodstein, Persily, Rospars) Fred Yang on 2016 … Continue reading

“Why the GOP Congress Will Stop Trump from Going Too Far”

December 14, 2016, 8:51 ampolitical parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Interesting Daniel Stid for Washington Monthly.

“Could campaign finance overhaul help solve congressional gridlock?”

December 8, 2016, 7:27 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Open Secrets reports on today’s Excellent Sidley forum at NYU in DC: Should we restrict political contributions? How have weakened political parties impacted this election? Can public financing work? President-elect Donald Trump pledged to “drain the swamp,” yet has not… Continue reading

How Will Congress and the Separation of Powers Function Under a Trump Administration?

November 29, 2016, 12:32 pmlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarizationRichard Pildes

Christopher DeMuth, former head of OIRA in the Reagan OMB and former President of AEI, has a long, thoughtful essay in the weekend Wall Street Journal in which he explores whether the separation of powers might see a revival in… Continue reading

Democrats Blame “Voter Suppression” for Clinton Loss at Their Peril

November 10, 2016, 9:26 ampolitical parties, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

Let me start by getting a few important points out of the way, so it is clear what I’m saying. Yes, Republican legislatures have passed a series of laws making it harder to register and vote. It is not just… Continue reading

“The Democratic Party Establishment Is Finished”

November 9, 2016, 8:34 amcampaigns, political partiesRick Hasen

Jim Newell: The midterm losses? That was just a bad cycle, structurally speaking; presidential demographics would make up for it. The party establishment made a grievous mistake rallying around Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t just a lack of recent political seasoning.… Continue reading

“A Narrower Majority for Republicans Could Widen the House Divide”

November 4, 2016, 8:50 amlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

NYT: But some members of the Freedom Caucus seem to have another agenda in mind. They strategized behind closed doors on Wednesday about how to press for their priorities during the lame-duck session, as well as under a potential… Continue reading

“The Divided States of America”

September 22, 2016, 11:21 ampolitical parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

Must-read Lee Drutman NYT oped: Reading the nonstop coverage of what may well be a close presidential election, one might be forgiven for thinking that political competition is alive and well in America. But look at the majority of states… Continue reading

“Senate Dysfunction Blocks Bipartisan Criminal Justice Overhaul”

September 16, 2016, 7:19 amlegislation and legislatures, political parties, political polarizationRick Hasen

NYT: A major criminal-justice overhaul bill seemed destined to be the bipartisan success story of the year, consensus legislation that showed lawmakers could still rise above politics and take on a serious societal problem. Then the election got in… Continue reading