Deliberative Congress: Analyzing the Congressional Speeches

• In Event: Understanding Legislative Debates

Abstract

In the contemporary U.S. political environment, legislators appear to have increasing difficulty acting according to democratic ideals. Scholars analyze that the partisan behavior of legislators reinforces competitive politics and combines legislative performance with partisan victories, creating a cycle in which party-level legislative victories increasingly guarantee electoral success. Many scholars recognize this trend as worsening polarization in the U.S. Congress and see it as a central mode of modern legislative practice. In contrast, other researchers argue that even if partisan polarization is observed as a whole, it is a result of strategic behavior by some legislators appealing to ideological extremities, and they do not necessarily agree with the overall dysfunction of the legislature.

We examine contemporary legislative practice from the perspective of deliberative democrats. From a deliberative perspective that comprehensively considers results and procedures, it is difficult to evaluate the soundness of an institution solely through the outcome measures such as legislative votes or legislative effectiveness that most congressional researchers rely on. Thus, the observed polarization may be an institutional error, but it may also be just an unwelcome part that the other components of the system can offset.

For instance, legislators engage in deliberative policy discussions that, despite varied degrees, are based on mutual respect. Such deliberative practices manifest within and interactively across various legislative organizations, forming a systematic deliberation--what deliberative democrats call for to justify the legitimacy of a democratic institution.

It suggests that the essential function of deliberation in democracy, not necessarily explained only by legislative votes or outcomes, is still being fulfilled. It underscores the need for a more comprehensive assessment of legislative deliberation in the context of Congressional polarization and the legitimacy of Congressional democracy.

We capture legislative deliberation, utilizing the speech records of U.S. legislators to quantify the extent to which each legislator contributes to the formation and diffusion of legislative discourses. Success in finding the vibrancy of Congressional deliberation can provide balanced advantages against the growing concerns about the legitimacy of Congress due to polarization. In doing so, we also seek to fill the gap in current legislative research that largely omits deliberation's theoretical and empirical aspects.

Author

• Jungbae An, Ohio State University