The Collaborative Congress : Reaching Common Ground in a Polarized House

The Collaborative Congress challenges the conventional narrative of a hopelessly dysfunctional legislature by revealing and analyzing the widespread use of collaboration for successful policymaking. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

The Collaborative Congress is an in-depth study of how members work together to create policy in a polarized legislature. While the modern Congress is characterized by partisanship and conflict, members frequently look for opportunities to find common ground on substantive policy. This book challenges the conventional narrative of a hopelessly dysfunctional legislature by revealing the widespread use of collaboration for successful policymaking. Drawing on a new dataset of communication between members, social network analysis, and qualitative interviews, chapters demonstrate that nearly every member engages in collaboration across a broad array of issues. The book identifies the strategic and political considerations that influence a member's decision to collaborate and shows that collaborative legislation is more successful at every stage of the policymaking process. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.