Collaborative Research: Party Effects in Congress

长期以来，政治学家一直试图衡量和描述政党对国会议员行为和政策选择的适度和偶然影响。他们这样做时，并没有具体说明反映各方可能影响选择的多种方式的模型。在本研究中，研究人员：1)直接模拟其他形式的党派效应；2)将分析扩展到整个内战后时期，以涵盖可能与不同形式的政党影响相关的各种规则和党派制度；3)比较不同制度竞争（参众两院）中的偏好和政党效应；并且，5)比较在“必须通过的立法”和在相当大的队伍倾向于回归点的法案中的偏好和党派效应。这个项目大大提高了我们对这个主题的理解，并产生了一个数据库，将为许多对这个主题感兴趣的其他学者使用。

Political scientists have long attempted to measure and describe the modest and contingent effects of party on the behavior of members of Congress and on policy choices. They have done so without specifying models that reflect the multiple ways in which parties might influence choice. In this investigation, the researchers: 1) directly model alternative forms of party effects; 2) extend the analysis for the entire post-Civil War period in order to encompass the various rules and partisan regimes that might be associated with different forms of party influence; 3) compare preference and party effects in different institutional contests (House and Senate); and, 5) compare preference and party effects in "must pass legislation" and in bills where a sizable contingent prefers the reversion point.This project enhances substantially our understanding of the topic and produces a database that will be of use for numerous other scholars interested in the topic.