study by increasing the number of interest groups represented in the analysis and by collecting data covering a longer period of time, however, this requires that the same interest groups provide ratings of senators consistently. What are the consequences of extreme party polarization in the Senate in 2015? The 113th and 112th congresses have been the least productive in history since record keeping began in 1947 (Memoli 2014). The 112th Congress passed just 284 bills, while the 113th Congress barely exceeded this number with 296. However, approximately ten percent of bills passed by the 113th Congress simply renamed local post offices (Bump 2014). In fact, the number of enacted laws has seen a sharp decline since the 108th Congress, which passed 504 bills, roughly 70 percent more than the most recent Congress. Party polarization is the primary cause of this recent phenomenon. Numerous studies have shown that the increasing ideological polarization between the two major parties has had a negative effect on legislative productivity (Binder 1999, Jones 2001, Dodd & Schraufnagel 2013). In their analysis of congressional productivity, Dodd and Schraufnagel (2013) argue that extreme polarization, as well as, interestingly enough, the complete lack of polarization, undermines policy productivity. Legislative productivity will continue to be woefully low if the Senate continues to be polarized along a partisan dimension to the extent that it has been in recent years. Appendix Table 5: PCFA of Senator Scorecards Factor Eigenvalue Proportion 1 10.12 0.92 2 0.32 0.03 3 0.14 0.01 4 0.10 0.01 5 0.08 0.01
study by increasing the number of interest groups represented in the analysis and by collecting data covering a longer period of time, however, this requires that the same interest groups provide ratings of senators consistently. What are the consequences of extreme party polarization in the Senate in 2015? The 113th and 112th congresses have been the least productive in history since record keeping began in 1947 (Memoli 2014). The 112th Congress passed just 284 bills, while the 113th Congress barely exceeded this number with 296. However, approximately ten percent of bills passed by the 113th Congress simply renamed local post offices (Bump 2014). In fact, the number of enacted laws has seen a sharp decline since the 108th Congress, which passed 504 bills, roughly 70 percent more than the most recent Congress. Party polarization is the primary cause of this recent phenomenon. Numerous studies have shown that the increasing ideological polarization between the two major parties has had a negative effect on legislative productivity (Binder 1999, Jones 2001, Dodd & Schraufnagel 2013). In their analysis of congressional productivity, Dodd and Schraufnagel (2013) argue that extreme polarization, as well as, interestingly enough, the complete lack of polarization, undermines policy productivity. Legislative productivity will continue to be woefully low if the Senate continues to be polarized along a partisan dimension to the extent that it has been in recent years. Appendix Table 5: PCFA of Senator Scorecards Factor Eigenvalue Proportion 1 10.12 0.92 2 0.32 0.03 3 0.14 0.01 4 0.10 0.01 5 0.08 0.01
Single%20Dimension%20Senatorial%20Scorecards.docx