Crossing the Aisle Party Switching by US Legislators in the Postwar Era

Switching parties is arguably the most important decision a politician will ever make. This book is the first-ever systematic study of the causes and consequences of legislative party switching in the United States. The author argues that re-election alone does not explain party switching. He proposes an ambition-based theory that accounts for multiple goals (including higher office aspirations and the desire for influence in the legislature) with a focus on the electoral costs and the institutional benefits of the decision. The book combines the statistical analysis of electoral data and legislative careers in the US Congress and state legislatures with elite interviews of party switchers, non-switchers, and a party leader. The case study of a party switcher's decision in 'real time' documents the complexity of the decision in a politician's own words prior to and following the switch. The book raises important questions regarding the meaning of a party label.

Part I: 1. Legislative party switching in the United States: an introduction; 2. Party switching: a theoretical framework; Part II: 3. Why do members of Congress switch parties?; 4. Progressive ambition and party switching: testing the model on state legislators; Part III: 5. The electoral consequences of party switching among members of Congress; 6. The benefits of party switching: intrainstitutional advancement and the committee assignment process; Part IV: 7. Behind the scenes: the role of party leaders, rank-and-file members, and former party switchers; 8. A 'real-time' look into the decision to cross the aisle; 9. Conclusion.

Antoine Yoshinaka is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the State University of New York, Buffalo. He is the author of several scholarly articles on elections, legislatures, and parties in the US context and around the world. He co-published Establishing the Rules of the Game: Election Laws in Democracies (2004), a thorough treatment of six critical dimensions of election laws in over sixty democracies. He was the recipient of the 2007–8 Congressional Research Award from the Dirksen Center and of the 2001 Malcolm Jewell Award from the Southern Political Science Association.