TY - JOUR
T1 - Joining patterns across party factions in the US Congress
AU - Thomsen, Danielle M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© E-flow Walter de Gruyter 2017. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - How does the influence of party factions change over time? This article only begins to tackle this question by looking at which party caucuses newly elected members join. I focus on joining patterns in the current 115th Congress to shed light on which factions are more or less influential in Congress today. I show, first, that almost all incoming members joined an ideological faction when they entered office. Furthermore, the Republican Study Committee attracted the most incoming Republicans; the New Democratic Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus attracted the most incoming Democrats. The moderate factions lagged behind the more conservative and liberal factions in the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. These joining patterns of newly elected members have important implications for the current and future influence that factions can expect to have in the party and chamber.
AB - How does the influence of party factions change over time? This article only begins to tackle this question by looking at which party caucuses newly elected members join. I focus on joining patterns in the current 115th Congress to shed light on which factions are more or less influential in Congress today. I show, first, that almost all incoming members joined an ideological faction when they entered office. Furthermore, the Republican Study Committee attracted the most incoming Republicans; the New Democratic Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus attracted the most incoming Democrats. The moderate factions lagged behind the more conservative and liberal factions in the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. These joining patterns of newly elected members have important implications for the current and future influence that factions can expect to have in the party and chamber.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061347370&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1515/for-2017-0047
DO - 10.1515/for-2017-0047
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85061347370
SN - 1540-8884
VL - 15
SP - 741
EP - 751
JO - Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics
JF - Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics
IS - 4
ER -