All is not fair - The effects of changing committee representation on partisan conflict in transforming legislatures

This article addresses the problem of the causes of party conflict in forme r one-party legislatures. Some argue that as the minority party gains groun d in the legislature, partisan floor conflict will rise. Yet, literature on committees and the changing status of the committee system seems to sugges t that conflict is lowered in chambers where the minority party participate s in committee decision making. This study is based on tests of data from a 10-year time period. The author reports that the proportion of minority pa rty membership on committees has a direct dampening effect on the level of conflict on the floor. This analysis also finds that the effect is variable by bill type and that the overall effect on conflict is greater than the e ffect of chamber share in determining the level of party conflict in the ch amber.