On September 23, AEI’s Kevin R. Kosar was joined by Johns Hopkins SNF Agora Institute’s Scott Warren, Syracuse University’s Richard Barton, and Princeton University’s Frances Lee to discuss the extent to which electoral incentives are responsible for the state of Congress.
The event marked AEI’s release of a report by Kosar and Warren on this very topic.
Following opening remarks from Dr. Kosar, Mr. Warren discussed the deleterious incentives posed by the current election system and what it means to have a functional Congress. The panelists agreed there is no widely shared normative agreement on what constitutes a good Congress.
Dr. Barton observed that the declining number of competitive general elections has made primary elections increasingly important. He highlighted that primary elections have different dynamics than general elections, distorting elections to Congress. Dr. Barton noted that some reforms, such as nonpartisan primaries (e.g., in California or Alaska), exhibit depolarizing effects and could make Congress more representative of the public.
Dr. Lee noted that increased party competition for control of Congress has changed members’ willingness to engage in dealmaking and compromise. She supported experimentation but observed that many election reforms fail to address the fundamental difficulties of building a governing coalition. She stated a decisive, realigning election is needed to incentivize the parties to build broad, durable coalitions.
The panelists agreed that Congress is doing a decent job given the difficult political situation and varied and contradictory incentives and voter expectations.
Stay in the know about our news and events.