- Until conservative Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson was elected speaker of the House on Oct. 25, no candidate had been able to secure the necessary number of Republicans to win a vote on the House floor.
- And without an elected speaker, the chamber was effectively stuck.
- The two proximate reasons for the GOP’s struggle to pick and keep a speaker are that it is internally divided and its majority in the House is small.
The authority of parties
An effective legislative party exercises four kinds of authority. The first is the ability to choose the chamber’s top leader and write the chamber’s rules – which both form part of what political scientists call organizational authority. The second kind is procedural authority, or the ability to set the legislative agenda and decide which bills come to the floor for a vote.
- The third type of authority is over policy – being able to pass the party’s desired bills and amendments on the floor.
- Finally, parties have electoral authority, meaning they help their members get reelected and help challengers beat incumbents from the other party.
Before the 1990s: Stronger parties
- Democrats’ election fundraising also grew rapidly, and they gave more attention to recruiting strong candidates to run for office.
- Republicans adopted these tactics after they became the majority party in the House in 1995 and elected Newt Gingrich as speaker.
From the 1990s to today: Weakening parties
- For one thing, congressional elections became more competitive, giving the minority little incentive to help the majority govern.
- Smaller margins in the House between the two parties gave the majority party less leeway to allow for defections on floor votes.
- And new legislators were elected to Congress who were skeptical of leaders and the tradition of party loyalty.
What comes next?
- The current situation has created a serious collective action problem for the GOP, meaning that too many lawmakers think only about their own political needs, even at the risk of hurting the party as a whole.
- Polls show that the stalemate over choosing a speaker was damaging to the Republican Party’s reputation.
- The new speaker, despite having been able to pull together his GOP colleagues, will face the same challenges that McCarthy did.
- The party’s majority will still be small, it will still be divided, and the same forces that have weakened their party’s authority will remain in place.
Matthew Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.