To what extent has centralization of power in Congress enabled majority party leaders to shepherd their programmatic platforms into law? To address this question,
we examine congressional votes on all enacted laws from 1973-2014, as well on the subset of landmark laws identified by Mayhew (2005). In addition, we analyze the efforts
of congressional majority parties to enact their legislative agendas between 1993 and 2017. We find that legislating in recent congresses is nearly as bipartisan as it was
in the 1970s.
Most laws, including landmark enactments, continue to garner substantial bipartisan support, and laws are rarely enacted over the opposition of a majority
of the minority party. Furthermore, there is no evidence that majority parties have gotten better at enacting their legislative programs. In fact, contemporary
congressional majorities fail in enacting their agenda items at rates that are equivalent to (and often inferior to) benchmarks set in less party-polarized congresses.
When majority parties succeed in legislating on their agenda priorities, they usually do so with support from a majority of the opposing party in at least one chamber
of Congress and with the endorsement of one or more of the opposing party’s top leaders.
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