The Role of the Minorty Party

According to the reading(s), the role of the minority party is more complex than I originally perceived it to be. I originally thought that the minority party's sole job was to just to reject everything the majority party proposed, acting as a complete and utter "Devil's Advocate".

According to John H. Aldrich and David W. Rohde in their quarterly, "The Transition to Republican Rule", they explain that:

"... no one finds it in their interest to act on behalf of the floor, as the Speaker, majority and minority leaders, and others find it in their interests to act on behalf of their party and its collective interests. Thus, even if there is a majority on the floor, it is unlikely to act as a collective, and it is especially unlikely for anyone to act in its collective interests in settings remote in time or place from voting on the floor."

Source = http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2657691.pdf


This explanation is interesting, because I was always under the assumption that members were subservient to their party - and nothing else. But this explanation indicates that the goals of members might be acting in their own self interests versus what the party's interest might be.

Relating this to the Professor's specific question for this week, "Focusing on the US Congress, what is the role of a minority party in a democracy?" - I think that Kathryn Pearson and Eric Schickler do a great job of describing the role of the minority party in their article, "The Transition to Democratic Leadership in a Polarized House". Both Pearson and Schickler describe vividly the toiling between the majority party, the democrats under Nancy Pelosi, and the minority Party - the Republicans. One analysis in particular that I enjoyed was the way in which the Republicans, with the help of the presidential veto pen, were able to foil the democrats' bid to end the war in Iraq. The President rejected Nancy Pelosi's approach that included deadlines for withdrawal of US combat forces, and so the President vetoed the legislation that arrived on his desk. The Republicans in congress put the democrats in a difficult position by claiming that if the Democrats "stopped funding" the war, this would in turn cut off vital supplies to the troops such as armored equipment, and other various supplies. I remember watching this play out in the media, and political commentators frequently said that Pelosi, Bush, and Congress were playing a game of "chicken" with regards to funding for the troops [NOTE: That is not my opinion, it was the opinion of some political commentators and talking heads at the time, if you don't believe me, see the several links provided below].

http://thehill.com/john-fortier/playing-chicken-on-war-funding-2007-03-27.html

http://www.newser.com/story/12264/pentagon-congress-play-chicken-over-iraq-funds.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1687160,00.html

Eventually, according to Pearson and Schickler, Pelosi accepted that timetables for withdrawal were a no-go as far as the majority of Republicans and the President was concerned, and the Democrats proposed legislation that included benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

This, in my opinion, is a good example of the minority party achieving a victory against the numerical power of the majority party. The Republicans used the idea of troops in Iraq with no supplies as a reason as to why funding was necessary. This lead to the democratic leadership being forced to kowtow to the wishes of the President, and although some concessions were made, the key - a time line for withdrawal - was missing, and this upset many in the anti-war movement; according to the article by Pearson and Schickler.

Based on the two readings that I felt best answered the question by the Professor, I believe that the role of a minority party in a democracy is to act as some kind of buffer against the majority party. If you are familiar with corporations, the role of many boardrooms is to challenge management, ask tough questions, and demand good answers and the highest possible standards. This is a good analogy in my opinion, but the question is open-ended and there is no one right answer.

Currently, I am at 500+ words, approximately 200 above what is required. I will reference some more of the readings in the link-post, but I believe this is a good start to answering the Professor’s question: "Focusing on the US Congress, what is the role of a minority party in a democracy?"