The End of the Blue Slip Looks Like It’s Coming for Circuit Court Nominees
This is expected, and it will mean a big shift in the courts to the right.
Category Archives: political polarization
“Why American Democracy Is Broken, and How to Fix It”
Jeet Heer in TNR:
Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, wondered in a 2013 article whether this called for drastic measures: “The partisanship of our political branches and the mismatch with our structure of government raise… Continue reading
New CFI Report: Unlimited Party Contributions Don’t Help Ease Polarization
Release: (my emphasis)
The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) today is releasing a new study entitled Party Contribution Limits and Polarization. The study refutes one of the policy solutions put forward in recent years for a problem that almost everyone… Continue reading
“Has the Top Two Primary Elected More Moderates?”
Eric (“Efficiency Gap”) McGhee and Boris Shor have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Party polarization is perhaps the most significant political trend of the past several decades of American politics. Many observers have pinned hopes on… Continue reading
Bauer on Judge Silberman, Rick Pildes, and “Existential Politics”
“Race or Party, Party as Race, or Party All the Time: Three Uneasy Approaches to Conjoined Polarization In Redistricting and Voting Cases”
I have posted this draft on SSRN, for the forthcoming symposium on Redistricting after 2020 at William and Mary. I think this piece brings together a lot of my thinking (and others’ thinking) on the “race or party” question… Continue reading
“Can Our Political Institutions Handle Our Political Divisions?”
New Lee Drutman report for the New America Foundation:
Executive Summary
The United States is a politically divided nation. These divisions have only grown deeper in the past decade. They are increasingly paralyzing our democratic institutions, which rely on cooperation… Continue reading
“Playing Cards in a Hurricane: Party Reform in an Age of Polarization”
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
“How big is the gap between the donor class and ordinary Americans? Bigger than you think.”
Sean McElwee, Jesse Rhodes, and Brian Schaffner for Monkey Cage:
Across the board, we find that donors as a group are more partisan than non-donors who share their party affiliation. For example, Democratic donors were 10 percentage points more… Continue reading
“Why the GOP Congress Will Stop Trump from Going Too Far”
Interesting Daniel Stid for Washington Monthly.
“Could campaign finance overhaul help solve congressional gridlock?”
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?
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
The New Political Realism: Transactional Politics and Earmarks
Last week, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post reported that there was “significant support” within the House Republican conference for bringing back earmarks. Republicans eliminated earmarks when they took the House majority in 2010 as part of “political reforms” that… Continue reading
“A Narrower Majority for Republicans Could Widen the House Divide”
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