Coalitions in the Senates of the 96th and 97th Congresses

Abstract

This study identifies voting patterns in the Senates of the 96th and 97th Congresses using a content-free scheme which avoids any prior classification of Senators according to policy or ideological dimensions. The characteristics of the patterns that emerge are then examined to ascertain whether they are essentially the same in the Senates preceding and following the election of President Reagan and of a Republican majority in the Senate. Four similarly composed ideological coalitions emerged in each Senate when all highly contested votes were analyzed together. In terms of voting, they are generally arrayed along the "liberal-conservative" spectrum observed by Schneider. However, when their treatment of a case issue, student aid for higher education, was examined in the Senate of the 97th Congress, policy determinative lines of cleavage running counter to Schneider's spectrum were observed.