A government divided

The two-party political system is more to blame for congressional gridlock than actual differences between liberal and conservative viewpoints — at least, that's the argument of government and politics professor Frances Lee.

In a 40-minute presentation yesterday, Lee discussed the ideas in her book Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate and explained the extraneous factors that influence voting habits. The event was the year's final in the Conversations with Campus Authors lecture series and came on the heels of Friday's narrowly averted government shutdown that would have been a consequence of partisan fighting.

Congressional voting depends on what party is in power rather than differences in legislators' actual viewpoints, Lee told about 20 students and faculty members who attended.

"It's often not the case that the issues themselves are partisan, but there are partisan advantages to be gained," Lee said.

Those partisan advantages primarily refer to gaining control of the legislative and executive branches, she said. Some students said they agreed with Lee's perspective because it may explain why members of Congress seem to always be arguing.

"There's so much conflict that it's obvious that there's not a genuine conflict all the time; there's partisan bickering," said senior government and politics major Jamie Mertz.

In the discussion, Lee pointed out that the fight for party power is a main force driving congressional voting. She also spoke about the nature of debate between lawmakers and how it is sometimes just a vehicle for party bashing.

"The grim logic of two-party competition is that a party can gain just as much electoral mileage from damaging its opposition's reputation as from building a positive record of policy achievement on its own," she said.

From her experiences as a congressional fellow and as a professor, Lee found that the true intention of a bill often takes a backseat to trivial disagreements. For example, she discussed situations where Congress is split between Republicans and Democrats even when the issue at hand isn't especially polarizing.

"I was struck by the low-profile issues that provoked consistent party line voting in Congress even though they weren't issues you would normally think of as defining liberals or conservatives," she said.

Lee contends that there are several issues about which liberals and conservatives agree.

"Nobody is in favor of corruption in government; everyone is in favor of lawful participation in elections; ... everyone hates waste, fraud and abuse," she said.

However, Republicans and Democrats may vote differently on these topics depending on which party has presidential power, she said.

Lee said lawmakers have been known to reverse their positions in debates over issues such as calculating the budget deficit, forming independent commissions to review government performance and implementing assessment testing in schools based on which political party has presidential control.

"I argue that presidents provoke partisan conflict — not so much intentionally, but simply by virtue of the political dynamics that they set off when they champion an agenda," she said at the event.

Lee has traveled to universities around the country presenting her research to political science departments, but yesterday was the first time showcasing her work outside her field. Event organizers said they wanted to expose more people to the topic.

"We chose Dr. Lee's book because the topic is very timely, and we thought it would bring in a wide range of people," university librarian and event organizer Tim Hackman wrote in an e-mail.

And Lee's research is particularly relevant in the context of legislators' recent scramble to avoid a government shutdown. Students in attendance said Lee's central points were especially obvious on Capitol Hill over the past few weeks.

"When you take into consideration election politics that you might not see happening," said senior government and politics major Melissa Meek. "I think that definitely changes the way people might split and the way that parties will perceive each other."

marcot at umdbk dot com