Concluding Remarks: Majority Party Dominance or Minority Party Influence?

This research set out to understand how and under what conditions the minority party can successfully exert influence in legislative politics. The conventional account of contemporary congressional politics suggests very little role for the minority party in the legislative process. The role of minority parties and political opposition, more generally, represents a long-standing concern for democratic theorists. Thomas Jefferson asserted the significance of securing rights for the minority or political opposition, particularly through institutional rules and procedural guarantees for minority party members.² In this book, I demonstrate that there is meaningful variation in the nature and extent of minority party