CAN CONGRESS EVER BE POPULAR? Elizabeth Theiss-Morse University of Nebraska-Lincoln Congress in the Classroom July 27, 2010.

CAN CONGRESS EVER BE POPULAR?Elizabeth Theiss-MorseUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln

Congress in the ClassroomJuly 27, 2010

NO!

Why is Congress so unpopular right now?

•Only 20 percent of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job

•74 percent disapprove!

Why is Congress so unpopular right now?

Pew Research Center survey, March 2010

When asked to give a one-word impression of Congress, this is what the Pew Research Center heard:

Why is Congress so unpopular right now?•So what is the answer to this question?

When has Congress been popular in the past?

•If there are times when Congress has been especially popular or especially unpopular, maybe we can get some clues

Approval of Congress over time

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ApproveDisapprove

How does Congress’ popularity compare to the other branches?

•Even if Congress is more popular at certain times than at others, it might be that Congress is always the least popular branch

Approval of Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court

1985

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CongressPresidentSupreme Court ApprovalSupreme Court Confidence

So what makes Congress especially unpopular?

• Members of Congress often run for Congress by running against it

• Media coverage of Congress tends to be especially negative compared to the other branches

• Everything Congress does is very public (unlike the presidency or the judiciary)

• There are lots of members of Congress, a small handful do jerky things, and these transgressions get generalized to the whole of Congress

So what makes Congress especially unpopular?

•My focus: Democratic processes and DEMOCRACY itself

Democratic Processes and Congress

•What kind of institution did the Framers intend when they created Congress?▫“People’s branch” – open to many

competing interests▫Deliberative body – set up to discuss and

debate issues▫Need for compromise – institutionally

forced to reach compromises

Democratic Processes and Congress

•So what kind of institution did the Framers create?▫An institution that was slow and inefficient,

encumbered with arcane rules, never likely to ram through a particular interest, and open to lots and lots of competing interests

▫In other words, an institution that could not be too big or too powerful or too able to infringe on individuals and their rights

▫They created Congress!

The “People’s Branch”

•Madison’s Federalist #10 – let interests be fruitful and multiply

•In a large, modern-day, technologically-advanced democracy, given our Constitution, this means having lots of interest groups

The “People’s Branch”

• In a 1992 survey, ▫ 86 percent of

respondents said Congress is too heavily influenced by interest groups when making decisions

▫ 78 percent said Congress is too far removed from ordinary people

• In a 2010 survey, ▫ 87 percent of

respondents said officials in Washington are too heavily influenced by special interests

▫ 81 percent said they are out of touch with average people

But Americans seriously dislike interest groups

The “People’s Branch”•Focus group participants in 1997 said,

▫Mike: If the government keeps their nose out, our country would gravitate towards a certain opinion. I mean, 80 percent of the population wants this, but the government does that.

▫Lisa: That’s because we’ve created an occupation of professional lobbyists where those people are paid by groups to sway the government from what the people really want. We need to eliminate that occupation as a whole. That needs to not be acceptable in our society.

The “People’s Branch”

•Problems:▫80 percent of Americans don’t agree on

most issues Immigration The budget deficit Health care Abortion

▫And even if they agree on the ends (lower crime rates, good education), they disagree on the means

The “People’s Branch”

•Problems (continued):▫Almost three-fourths (70 percent) of

Americans are members of an interest group 40 percent are members of at least two

interest groups▫If we hate interest groups, we have to

admit that the enemy is us

Deliberation and Compromise

•The whole structure of Congress is designed to generate debate and compromise▫Many of the rules on the House and Senate

floors▫Committees and subcommittees▫Conference committees

Deliberation and Compromise

• But Americans dislike debate and compromise

• In a 1998 survey,

▫ 86 percent of respondents said elected officials should stop talking and just take action

▫ 60 percent said compromise in politics is really just selling out on one’s principles

Deliberation and Compromise

•With increased partisan gerrymandering and greater partisan polarization in Congress, members of Congress themselves are (publicly) less willing to debate and compromise

Deliberation and Compromise

Great party polarization in recent years(McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal)

Deliberation and CompromiseAnd greater party unity scores (McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal)

Deliberation and Compromise

•With more polarization and more party unity, we are seeing fewer and fewer members of Congress willing to reach across the aisle

•Debate and deliberation become yelling matches

•Compromise becomes more rare

What can be done?

•Two proposals:

▫Teach barbarics rather than civics

▫Teach students to appreciate the difficulty of dealing with competing interests in a democratic society

Teaching barbarics

•Tendency to focus on concepts, history, and the constitutional structure

•This approach misses the nitty-gritty stuff of politics, including giving students a deep understanding of why debate and compromise are necessary (and good)

•Research shows that more education leads to more factual knowledge and more civic engagement but not to a better appreciation for democratic processes

Effects of education on knowledge, interest and support for the Constitution

Political Knowledge Political Interest Support Constitution0

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1.65 1.67

2.051.93 1.98

2.142.2 2.18 2.22

2.78

2.4 2.43

3.28

2.53 2.52

Less than HSHigh SchoolSome CollegeCollegePost-college

Effects of education on voter turnout

Turnout0

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Less than HSHigh SchoolSome CollegeCollegePost-college

Effects of education on understanding the importance of democratic processes

Importance of Debate Importance of Compromise0

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1.43

1.27

1.39 1.391.36 1.351.371.331.36

1.31

Less than HSHigh SchoolSome CollegeCollegePost-college

Teaching barbarics

•Need to desanitize the curriculum▫People will come into conflict over their

political interests – it is inevitable▫Democratic processes are supposed to

resolve these conflicts peacefully and constructively

▫These processes, though, lead necessarily to messiness, inefficiency, and often a lack of action (or at least a slow response)

▫This is all necessary in a highly diverse democracy like the United States

Competing interests

•Teaching about democratic processes is especially necessary if we accept that there are many legitimate and competing interests in our society▫We don’t overwhelmingly agree on the

important issues of the day▫Interest groups are not necessarily the bad

guys, and whether they are or are not, they are here to stay

Competing interests

•One way to teach about interests is to give students an opportunity to see for themselves that there isn’t much consensus on major issues▫Pew Research Center for the People and

the Press (http://people-press.org/)▫Pollingreport.com (

http://www.pollingreport.com/)

Competing interests

•Another approach is to have students experience dealing with conflicting interests themselves

▫I use a pollution simulation that focuses on competing interests and the difficulty of coming to a decision given these interests

Competing interests simulation

•The simulation takes place in the fictitious town of Glenbrook, Wisconsin▫Wilson Lumber and Paper Company▫Joplin Fish Company▫The Ad Hoc Committee on Air and Water

Pollution Control (CAWP)▫Plus several other interests you’d expect to

find in a town: bank, Chamber of Commerce, the local newspaper, an interest group to lower taxes, and summer residents

Competing interests simulation

•The problem: Increased water and air pollution caused by the paper production process▫Chemicals dumped in the water▫Air pollutants emitted by Wilson’s

smokestacks

•What can be done?

Competing interests simulation

•Students play different roles

▫Interests in the town (with each interest having different levels of power and resources )

▫Seven students assigned to the Glenbrook City Council (one holds an at large seat and six represent each of six districts)

Objective of the simulation

•The City Council needs to figure out whether and how to deal with the pollution problem

•If they decide they want to do something about the pollution problem, then a policy proposal (or proposals) must be introduced by a Council member to the City Council

Rules of the simulation

•Council members can offer a new proposal or amendments to an existing proposal (with input from interests they represent)

•A majority vote is needed to pass a piece of legislation

What effect does the simulation have on students?

•Students who play the role of an interest ▫come to accept the legitimacy of the

different interests, even if they want their own interest to win

▫quickly learn the importance of coalition building

▫empathize with the City Council, understanding what a tough job the Council members had

What effect does the simulation have on students?•Students who were the Council members

▫struggle with any discrepancy between their district’s interests and their own beliefs about what would be best

▫are grateful for information from the interests and come to depend on them for policy ideas and analyses

▫always want to do what is best for Glenbrook, but quickly realize there was no consensus on what that is

What effect does the simulation have on students?•In the discussion following the simulation,

we addressed direct versus indirect democracy

•We also talked about taking what we learned from this very local problem and set of interests and moving it to the U.S. Congress▫What are the similarities?▫What are the differences?

Can students be taught to appreciate democratic process?•The simulation led students to

▫a greater appreciation for the role interests and interest groups play in our political system

▫a greater understanding of the need for debate – great ideas were generated in the debates over policy proposals

▫a greater appreciation for the art of compromise

Concluding comments

•I said earlier that the answer to the question “Can Congress ever be popular?” is “NO”

•I remain pessimistic▫Americans don’t appreciate democratic

processes, but increasingly the same can be said about members of Congress themselves

Concluding comments

•Is there hope nonetheless?▫Congress will change▫Students are often eager to learn about

what is really going on, about the nitty-gritty of politics

▫Organizations such as the Dirksen Center are amazing

▫Teachers who want students to understand Congress (and the rest of government)

So what is my final answer? Can Congress ever be popular?

Maybe

…but I doubt it

Questions?