Laurel M. Harbridge

College Fellow, Department of Political Science
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
PhD, Political Science, Stanford University, 2009
l-harbridge@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Additional biographical information

Laurel Harbridge’s work focuses on how elections, institutions, and policy are connected in the U.S. Congress.  More specifically, her recent research explores the ramifications of party polarization in Congress for the responsiveness of members to their constituents and for policy formation. 

Current Research

Bipartisanship in a Polarized Congress. Harbridge examines the role of bipartisan cooperation in Congress as party polarization has increased over the last four decades. Existing literature focuses on the causes and consequences of party polarization —the separation of the parties from one another and the increased homogeneity of ideologies within each party.She argues that despite what has traditionally been seen as increases in party polarization, members have continued to engage in bipartisanship and, thus, to show responsiveness to their districts.  Because of members’ electoral incentives (i.e., their desire to be re-elected), there exists an equilibrium level of bipartisanship in Congress. Members from districts with greater two-party competition are more likely to engage in bipartisanship than those from heavily single-party districts. The form of bipartisan cooperation, however, has changed, moving from roll call votes to bill cosponsorship coalitions as congressional agenda control has changed. The party leadership’s strategic incentives to schedule roll call votes on issues that divide the parties from one another leads to an artificial inflation of the decline in bipartisan cooperation. In contrast, by analyzing bipartisanship in bill cosponsorship coalitions, Harbridge finds a strong persistence of bipartisanship despite increased divisions in roll call voting.

Electoral Incentives and Partisan Conflict in Congress: Evidence from Survey Experiments. In joint work with Neil Malhotra of Stanford University, Harbridge examines public support for bipartisanship in Congress, and its implications for party polarization, via a set of survey experiments. Recent aggregate research suggests that polarized roll call voting has been associated with decreased approval of Congress. But this presents a puzzle: If Congress as a whole is punished for being polarized, why do members not become more bipartisan? Harbridge and Malhotra collect individual-level data in a controlled experimental setting to address this puzzle. They argue that individual members from safe districts are not electorally incentivized to be bipartisan for the sake of the collective reputation of the institution. They find that people with strong attachments to a political party disavow conflict in the aggregate but approve of individual members behaving in a partisan manner.

The Contribution of Interest Group Ratings to Party Polarization. In the 1970s, there was a dramatic increase in the number of interest groups that tracked the voting of members of Congress. This trend corresponds to the rise in party polarization. In joint work with David Brady of Stanford University, Harbridge examines how the rise in interest group ratings of individual members of Congress contributed to the rise in party polarization. By focusing on a variety of issue areas, Harbridge and Brady explore how polarized voting was in each area before and after interest group ratings, as well as how polarized voting was in each area relative to bill cosponsorship patterns.

Selected Publications

Harbridge, L., with S. Anderson. Forthcoming. Incrementalism in appropriations: Small aggregation, big changes. Public Administration Review.

Harbridge, L., with D. Brady and J. Ferejohn. 2008. Polarization and public policy: A general assessment. In Red and Blue Nation? Consequences and Correction of America’s Polarized Politics, vol. II, ed. P. S. Nivola and D. W. Brady. Washington D.C: Brookings Institution Press.

Harbridge, L., with D. Brady and D. Rivers. 2008. The 2008 Democratic shift. Hoover Institution, 152.