parliamentary systems, we should shift our emphasis away from roll calls toward
behavior such as campaign strategies, constituency service, and constituency com-
munication, or the use of parliamentary privileges such as asking questions to
ministers. These are less visible and less consequential activities that will help us
understand the weakening of parliamentary parties. In the United States, the key
puzzle is over the ‘‘real’’ power of party leaders. Can leaders change members’ votes
in more than a handful of cases? These questions, mixing quantitative research with
the more intensive qualitative designs of Fenno ( 1973 ) and Kingdon ( 1973 )—and
perhaps also a greater focus on state legislatures—will help us understand
why congressional parties are growing stronger and parliamentary parties are
becoming weaker.
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470 eric m. uslaner & thomas zittel