Clint Dillard
Why Par ty
Government?
Negative Agenda
Power
Gar y, Cox,
McCubbins. Ch.
2-3

WHY ARE THERE POLITICAL PARTIES?
 Parties are created to solve internal collective action problems
Legislators form political parties to bind themselves together in durable situations
-Legislation would be unpredictable and unprofitable
 Parties are created to solve external collective action problems
Legislators use parties as brand names
(reputation for electoral votes)

HOW ARE PARTIES ORGANIZED
 Parties as Firms
-Single chief executive officers
They involve delegation to party leaders
(central agents)
- To reduce transaction costs
- To improve collective action problems

HOW ARE PARTIES ORGANIZED
 Parties as Partnerships
Parties have “Senior Partners” in order to distribute responsibility, offices, and determine direction
- Partners help keep other partners in check in order to benefit the overall party
- Keeps full responsibility away from
Speaker/President

WHAT DO PARTIES DO?
 Floor Voting Coalitions
Maintain discipline with their members in order to ensure cohesive voting
- Gives more power to party leaders when there are larger disagreements between parties
 Procedural Coalitions
- Central issue is the majority party’s ability to control the legislative agenda
- Legislative agenda: set of bills considered and voted on the floor

 Strict party discipline (Costly)
 Positive agenda power: Proposal Rights
Ability to push bills through the legislative process to a final passage vote on the floor
 Negative agenda power: Veto Rights
Ability to block bills from reaching a final passage vote on the floor

PROCEDURAL CARTEL THEORY
 States that the majority party exerts substantial influence over legislative outcomes through control of the legislative agenda
 Uses 6 Assumptions for theory’s goals
 A-1: Members seek reelection, advancement, good public policy, and majority status
Majority status is the gateway to internal advancement and policy goals

PROCEDURAL CARTEL THEORY
 A-2: Reputation (Brand name) of the party affects both probability of reelection and majority vote
 A-3: Reputation of the party depends upon the record of legislative accomplishment
 A-4: A good legislative record (A -3) entails cooperation within the party itself

PROCEDURAL CARTEL THEORY
 A-5: Delegating to a central authority is the primary way to unify and regulate a party
 **A-6: The main resource that a majority party delegates to senior officers is the legislative agenda
Monopolize the agenda-setting power
- Gives its majority members all main agendasetting offices

SENIOR OFFICERS
 Majority secures all chairs, the speakership, and a large proportion of the Rules Committee
 Pursuing personal benefits is a major loss
Crimes of Commission: Pushing legislation one’s party mostly dislikes
-
Crimes of Omission: Failure to aid (or blocking) legislation one’s party mostly likes

MEMBERS
 Discipline is referred to members voting for the party
 Parties use the tactic “If you help me, I will help you”
 If a member votes for a bill their colleagues oppose  They run a clear risk
 If a member help ensure a bill’s success  They run a smaller risk

MEMBERS
 Party pressure can affect members decisions on procedure more than the decision of substance
 Why doesn’t a member switch parties?
Loss of one member is not pivotal to a party
- After switch, they are not trusted in their new party
- Research shows that switched members have a drastically reduced number of terms
 Minority Parties benefit from the internal divisions of the majority

NEGATIVE AGENDA POWER
 Modeling Agenda Power: Ability to influence what gets voted on, when, and how
 Majority uses agenda power to keep bill off the floor

AGENDA MODELS
 Floor Agenda Model
- Simpler
- Agenda is determined by a majority on the floor
 Cartel Agenda Model
- Agenda is determined by the senior partners of the majority party
- More in the interest of the overall party
- Majority almost always votes for Cartel

CARTEL > FLOOR
 Formula for Cartel
- Policy gains- Policy loss+ Office Benefits+
Distributive Benefits
 Cartel Gains
- Office Benefits: Opportunity to advance
- Districts served by senior members show more economic growth
- Distributive Benefit: Large share of issues
House decides

CONCLUSION
 Parties goal is to gain majority and control the floor agenda
 Cartel Model is more often used because of the use of senior officers that delegate the duties of the floor
 Member loyalty is crucial in order to unify the parties and maintain their reputations