Podcast appearances and mentions of Frances E Lee

Frances E. Lee is professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. In addition to In Covid's Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, she is author or coauthor most recently of The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era and Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign. Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His books, in addition to In Covid's Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, include Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage, and Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk, Frances Lee, and Stephen Macedo discuss school closures during COVID, why Republicans and Democrats reacted differently to the pandemic, why institutions failed, and why as a consequence institutions lost the public's trust. Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The topic of this episode is: “Partisan polarization: Is it crippling Congress?”My guest is Frances Lee. She is a professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University and a top scholar on Congress. She is the author and co-author of many articles and books on Congress, and has written for popular publications including the Atlantic magazine and the New York Times. Most recently she and James Curry published, The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era (Chicago 2020), which analyzes and addresses the subject of this episode—polarization in our national legislature.Kevin Kosar:Welcome to Understanding Congress, a podcast about the first branch of government. Congress is a notoriously complex institution and few Americans think well of it, but Congress is essential to our republic. It's a place where our pluralistic society is supposed to work out its differences and come to agreement about what our laws should be, and that is why we are here to discuss our national legislature and to think about ways to upgrade it so it can better serve our nation. I'm your host, Kevin Kosar, and I'm a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.Professor Lee, welcome to the podcast.Frances E. Lee:Thank you, Kevin. It's great to be here.Kevin Kosar:Let's start by ensuring that we all are on the same page: you, I, and listeners alike. When we speak of Congress, what do we mean by the term partisan polarization?Frances E. Lee:Partisan polarization has multiple meanings and I think that's probably why you began with this question.A layman's or a dictionary definition of polarization means division into two sharply contrasting groups. Congress is clearly polarized in this sense. Congress sees much more partisan conflict. Conflict in Congress breaks down more reliably on partisan lines than it did throughout most of the 20th century. We routinely see votes that pit 90% or more Democrats against 90% or more Republicans, a partisan divide that's more deep and predictable than we used to see.However, by partisan polarization, political scientists often mean something more technical. In its most rigorous form, the concept of polarization is grounded in spatial theory. It rests on a theorized choice space in which policy preferences are ranged on an underlying continuum from left to right. In this sense, parties become more polarized as the preferences of members become more distinctly bimodal, and as the two parties' modes move farther apart from one another.It's far from clear that parties are polarized in this second sense. The problem is that the issues at stake in congressional politics are diverse. On some issues, the congressional parties have moved closer together and on some issues, they've moved farther apart. There's little doubt that the post-Trump parties in Congress are

Congressional party cohesion--on both sides of the aisle--is at its highest level in decades. Does this have any impact Congress's ability to pass legislation, or have no impact at all? Professors James Curry and Frances E. Lee join Democracy Nerd to discuss their book "The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era," pointing out that contrary to popular belief, Congress actually operates in a bipartisan fashion.

To many observers, Congress has become a deeply partisan institution where ideologically-distinct political parties do little more than engage in legislative trench warfare. A zero-sum, winner-take-all approach to congressional politics has replaced the bipartisan comity ofpast eras. If the parties cannot get everything they want in national policymaking, then they prefer gridlock and stalemate to compromise. Or, at least, that is the conventional wisdom. In The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era (U Chicago Press, 2020), James M. Curry and Frances E. Lee challenge this conventional wisdom. By constructing legislative histories of congressional majority parties'attempts to enact their policy agendas in every congress since the 1980s and by drawing on interviews with Washington insiders, the authors analyze the successes and failures of congressional parties to enact their legislative agendas. Their conclusions will surprise many congressional observers: Even in our time of intense party polarization, bipartisanship remains the key to legislative success on Capitol Hill. Frances E. Lee is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. James Curry is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah. Their book, The Limits of Party, won the American Political Science Association's Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book in the field of US national policy. Host Ursula Hackett is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her Cambridge University Press book America's Voucher Politics: How Elites Learned to Hide the State won the 2021 Education Politics and Policy Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association. Her writing guide Brilliant Essays is published by Macmillan Study Skills. She tweets @UrsulaBHackett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of the most talked-about issues in Congress these days are not about the substance of policies or bills being debated on the floor. Instead, the focus is on the partisan conflict between the parties and the endless debate about whether individual members of Congress will break with party ranks on any particular vote. This behavior allows the parties to emphasize the differences between them, which makes it easier to court donors and hold voter attention.Some amount of competition between the parties is necessary in a healthy democracy, but have things gone too far? Frances E. Lee joins us this week to explain.Lee is jointly appointed in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where she is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs. She is the author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign and The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era with James M. Curry.Additional InformationLee's book, Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual CampaignHer lecture at Penn State on lawmaking in a polarized eraLee's websiteRelated EpisodesCongressional oversight and making America pragmatic againUnpacking political polarization

Emily, John and David discuss the corporate backlash to Georgia’s voting restrictions, Matt Gaetz and shamelessness in government, and they are joined by Amanda Ripley to talk about her new book High Conflict. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Jonathan Rauch for the Atlantic: “How American Politics Went Insane” Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign by Frances E. Lee High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley The Gottman Institute’s “Love Lab” Emotions in Conflict: Inhibitors and Facilitators of Peace Making by Eran Halperin L. M. Hartling, E. Lindner, U. Spalthoff and M. Britton for Psicología Política: “Humiliation: A Nuclear Bomb of Emotions?” Stephen Hawkins, Daniel Yudkin, Míriam Juan-Torres, Tim Dixon for More In Common: “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape” The Irregulars Here’s this week’s chatter: John: Dan Zak for the Washington Post: “Goodbye to Gate 35x, Cursed Portal to the Rest of America” Emily: Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution David: City Cast Denver Listener chatter from Paul John Rudoi: Passing English of the Victorian era, a Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang and Phrase available at The Public Domain Review; Karen Strike for Flashbak: “Not Up To Dick: 100 Wonderful Victorian Slang Words You Should Be Using” Slate Plus members get great bonus content from Slate, a special segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, John, David, and Emily contemplate whether vaccinated people have a moral obligation to go out and spend.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest, or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, John and David discuss the corporate backlash to Georgia’s voting restrictions, Matt Gaetz and shamelessness in government, and they are joined by Amanda Ripley to talk about her new book High Conflict. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Jonathan Rauch for the Atlantic: “How American Politics Went Insane” Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign by Frances E. Lee High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley The Gottman Institute’s “Love Lab” Emotions in Conflict: Inhibitors and Facilitators of Peace Making by Eran Halperin L. M. Hartling, E. Lindner, U. Spalthoff and M. Britton for Psicología Política: “Humiliation: A Nuclear Bomb of Emotions?” Stephen Hawkins, Daniel Yudkin, Míriam Juan-Torres, Tim Dixon for More In Common: “Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape” The Irregulars Here’s this week’s chatter: John: Dan Zak for the Washington Post: “Goodbye to Gate 35x, Cursed Portal to the Rest of America” Emily: Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution David: City Cast Denver Listener chatter from Paul John Rudoi: Passing English of the Victorian era, a Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang and Phrase available at The Public Domain Review; Karen Strike for Flashbak: “Not Up To Dick: 100 Wonderful Victorian Slang Words You Should Be Using” Slate Plus members get great bonus content from Slate, a special segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, John, David, and Emily contemplate whether vaccinated people have a moral obligation to go out and spend.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest, or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Carol Castiel and Caroline Haubenstricker speak with Frances E. Lee, professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University about her new book: “The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era.” Lee tells VOA that extensive research shows that divided government, i.e., when one political party holds the executive branch and the other controls one or both chambers of Congress, can produce meaningful bipartisan legislation. Lee reacts to the Democrats’ narrow control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and what it means for President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

Party polarization and economic inequality have had profound impacts on America's governing institutions. Frances E. Lee, co-editor of “Can America Govern Itself?” with Nolan McCarty, discusses what's new and what's perennial in challenges to democracy at this fraught moment.Lee is jointly appointed in Princeton University's Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where she is professor of politics and public affairs. She has broad interests in American politics, with a special focus on congressional politics, national policymaking, party politics, and representation.

Party polarization and economic inequality have had profound impacts on America’s governing institutions. Frances E. Lee, co-editor of “Can America Govern Itself?” with Nolan McCarty, discusses what’s new and what’s perennial in challenges to democracy at this fraught moment. Lee is jointly appointed in Princeton University’s Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where she is professor of politics and public affairs. She has broad interests in American politics, with a special focus on congressional politics, national policymaking, party politics, and representation.