Filibustering in the U.S. Senate By Lauren C. Bell

disruptive to the chamber and the legislative process that created it. Still, I maintain here—as I have done elsewhere—that the filibuster is not nearly as dangerous as its detractors would have Americans believe. As the analyses presented in the pages that follow show clearly, filibusters are rare events and are a reasonable outgrowth of the Senate's legislative process more generally. Moreover, senators’ filibuster decisions are rooted in the same considerations that give rise to their other legislative activities. They are therefore more predictable than previous research would suggest and possibly more controllable.