172 CHAPTER 6|POLITICAL PARTIES
the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), the National Republi-
can Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and the National Republican Congressional
Committee (NRCC).POLICY POSITIONS
The modern Congress is polarized: in both the House and the Senate, Republicans
and Democrats hold diff erent views on government policy. Figure 6.1 compares
legislators on the basis of their ideology, or their general feelings about government
policy, as measured by a liberal–conservative scale. The data refl ect two House
sessions: the contemporary 112th House (served 2011–12) and the 83rd House of
almost 60 years ago (served 1953–55).
These graphs tell us two things. First, over the last 60 years the magnitude
of ideological diff erences between the parties in Congress has increased. In the
83rd House there was some overlap between the positions of Democrats and
Republicans, but it had disappeared by the time of the 112th House.^22
The second fact that Figure 6.1 reveals is that both parties in government
include a mixture of ideologies, not a uniform consensus opinion. In the 83rd House
plot, for example, Democrats vary from the relatively liberal left end of the scale toDemocrats Republicans010203040506070Number of legislatorsLiberal Moderate Conservative
Liberal–conservative ideology83rd House (Elected 1952)010203040506070Number of legislatorsLiberal Moderate Conservative
Liberal–conservative ideology112th House (Elected 2010)8090100110120Source: Calculated from Royce Carroll, Jeff Lewis, James Lo, Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole, and Howard Rosenthal, “DW-NOMINATE Scores with Bootstrapped
Standard Errors,” January 23, 2009, http://www.voteview.com/dwnomin.htm (accessed 8/31/12).
IDEOLOGY OF THE PARTIES IN GOVERNMENT: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1952 AND 2010
Over the last several decades, ideological diff erences between Democrats and Republicans in Congress have increased
signifi cantly. However, even in the 112th House, both parties still included a wide range of views. In light of these data,
would you expect more or less partisan confl ict in the modern Congress than there was in the early 1950s? According to
these data, would you expect House members in each party to agree on what policies to pursue?