ABSTRACT
The congressional Democratic party takes a distinctive, partisan approach to pressing national problems, and it has a program of action. Fundamentally, the political parties in Congress are sharpened reflections of their counterparts outside. The congressional parties reflect the nature of our national political parties. Members of Congress are more ideological, more partisan, more politicized than their constituents. Accordingly, it is correct to say that Congress is a very partisan institution, and that the cleavages between its party groups are quite salient and keen. The congressional Democratic parties—in both the House of Representatives and the Senate—have acquired substantial capacity to lead. In the 1980s, the congressional parties became more programmatic. The congressional Democratic party program does exist—in leaders’ proclamations on the House and Senate floors, in publications and documents of the party caucuses and policy committees, and in the concrete actions taken by the parties in the course of congressional deliberation on legislation.
