| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Yet when it comes to understanding filibustering, most existing formal models make assumptions—about such things as the presence of a single filibuster pivot across an entire Congress or the likelihood that a filibusterer comes from the minority party—that may not be accurate when applied to empirical tests of filibustering behavior. Panning (1983, 438), in his critique of formal theories of legislative behavior, noted that there is frequently a “radical inconsistency between what the theory implies and what is in fact observed.” This is particularly applicable when considering formal models of senators’ filibuster decisions, such as Krehbiel (1998) and Chiou and Rothenberg (2002), among others. Like many formal models, their models are constrained by a lack of senator-level information, which reduces these scholars’ abilities to draw conclusions that hold up against empirical observations. Without accounting for the significant variation among senators’ attitudes and actions with regard to filibusters, formal models often seem contrived or irrelevant to those who have experience working in the Senate. In that sense, Panning (1983, 444) was correct when he noted that “the puzzling contrast between extant theory and reality rests upon the mistaken belief that extant theory is widely applicable” to actual legislative behavior.
The Senate and the Filibuster
As a practical matter, the fact that until now no list of filibusters has included data on those who lead them means that the discipline's extant models of filibustering and leadership in the Senate have not been able to accurately capture senators’ decisions about whether to filibuster, or under what conditions.
Before turning to a more substantive analysis of the factors that affect senators’ filibuster behaviors, and in order to provide the context for the identification and analysis of filibusters in the pages that follow, I pause here to provide a brief overview of the U.S. Senate and its legislative processes in general. I also discuss the definition of the term “filibuster” as well as the origins, mechanics, and use of the procedure before offering readers a glimpse into the content of later chapters.