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Obstructing Agenda-Setting: Examining Blue Slip Behavior in the Senate

  • Ryan C. Black , Anthony J. Madonna and Ryan J. Owens
Published/Copyright: January 3, 2011
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The Forum
From the journal The Forum Volume 9 Issue 4

Senators increasingly use obstructive tactics to stall or kill legislation. Unfortunately, because senators can obstruct privately, scholars have little understanding of the conditions under which they do so. Using previously unreleased data from 2001-2009, we examine Senate obstruction by focusing on blue slipping behavior. We find that extreme members who do not belong to the president's party are most likely to employ negative blue slips. Thus, as moderate senators continue to be replaced by more extreme members, senators will increasingly use obstructive tactics.

Keywords: Michigan State University
Published Online: 2011-1-3

©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Introduction
  2. Governing through the Senate
  3. Article
  4. On Being Second: The U. S. Senate in the Separated System
  5. Through the Looking Glass, Darkly: What has Become of the Senate?
  6. Making Laws and Making Points: Senate Governance in an Era of Uncertain Majorities
  7. Polarization, Obstruction, and Governing in the Senate
  8. Legislative Coalitions, Polarization, and the U.S. Senate
  9. Hanging With the Filibuster Pivot
  10. Senate Delegation Dynamics in an Age of Party Polarization
  11. The Electoral Risks of Senate Majority Leadership, or How Tom Daschle Lost and Harry Reid Won
  12. Obstructing Agenda-Setting: Examining Blue Slip Behavior in the Senate
  13. The Past and Future of the Supermajority Senate
  14. What the Filibuster Tells Us About the Senate
  15. Commentary
  16. Unified Budget Accounting in the United States Congress: The Persistence of Government Deficits and Debt, 1967-2010
  17. Review
  18. Review of The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership
  19. A Response to Joseph Cooper's Review of The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership
  20. Review of The Myth of Presidential Representation
  21. Review of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
https://doi.org/10.2202/1540-8884.1476
Keywords for this article
Michigan State University

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Introduction
  2. Governing through the Senate
  3. Article
  4. On Being Second: The U. S. Senate in the Separated System
  5. Through the Looking Glass, Darkly: What has Become of the Senate?
  6. Making Laws and Making Points: Senate Governance in an Era of Uncertain Majorities
  7. Polarization, Obstruction, and Governing in the Senate
  8. Legislative Coalitions, Polarization, and the U.S. Senate
  9. Hanging With the Filibuster Pivot
  10. Senate Delegation Dynamics in an Age of Party Polarization
  11. The Electoral Risks of Senate Majority Leadership, or How Tom Daschle Lost and Harry Reid Won
  12. Obstructing Agenda-Setting: Examining Blue Slip Behavior in the Senate
  13. The Past and Future of the Supermajority Senate
  14. What the Filibuster Tells Us About the Senate
  15. Commentary
  16. Unified Budget Accounting in the United States Congress: The Persistence of Government Deficits and Debt, 1967-2010
  17. Review
  18. Review of The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership
  19. A Response to Joseph Cooper's Review of The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership
  20. Review of The Myth of Presidential Representation
  21. Review of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
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