The purpose of this review is to take stock of how party polarization affects governance in the
United States. The article begins by defining polarization and discussing the means by …

This article reviews some recent advances in research on presidential appointments and
personnel. I focus specifically on research analyzing changes in the institutional …

Rarely these days does a news cycle pass without new stories of political dysfunction in
Washington, DC New reports of stalemates, fiscal cliffs, and failed grand bargains have …

Updated analysis of how the increasing polarization of American politics has been
accompanied and accelerated by greater income inequality. The idea of America as …

In Ideology and Congress, authors Poole and Rosenthal have analyzed over 13 million
individual roll call votes spanning the two centuries since Congress began recording votes …

An important feature of most political events is their repeatability: nearly all political events
reoccur, and theories of learning, path dependence, and institutional change all suggest that …

Since its first edition, Congress Reconsidered was designed to make available the best
contemporary work from leading congressional scholars in a form that is both challenging …

Federal agencies make an astounding number of policy decisions, engaging in more
lawmaking and adjudication than Congress and the federal courts. These policy judgments …

Political observers have remarked on a staggering increase in the length of time it takes for
the Senate to confirm presidential appointees to the lower federal bench. Here, we focus on …

Are independent agencies truly independent of presidential control? By placing limits on the
President's power to appoint and remove independent agency heads as well as mandating …