Congressional Approval Ratings In Congress

Congressional approval ratings have proven to be dependent upon the partisan lens in which the public views their legislative decisions. The public tends to have higher approval ratings when Congress approves legislation that aligns with their political views and lower approval ratings when congress approves legislation that does not. However, in “How Partisan Conflict in Congress Affects Public Opinion: Strategies, Outcomes, and Issue Differences” Flynn and Harbridge examine how approval ratings are affected when congressional decisions result in legislative gridlock. They find that when compared to partisan conflict resulting in partisan wins, loses, or and gridlock, the latter results in the least public approval. Furthermore, they reveal that legislative gridlock attributed to “ideological differences” receives a higher statistically significant approval than legislative gridlock attributed to “strategic partisan fighting”.
In analyzing the affect of legislative gridlock on congressional approval rating, they developed 3 main theories about how partisan conflict (resulting in partisan wins, losses, compromises and gridlock) affects public efficacy. They theorized that approval in congress would be greater when one’s own party wins than when the opposing party wins or when the parties reach a …show more content…
The first part of the diagram shows the four different types of outcomes of political conflict: partisan win, other win, compromise, and gridlock, and that they each affect public approval. It also shows gridlock is affected by another variable – the reason for the gridlock. When the gridlock is caused by ideological conflicts, it has a distinct approval than that which is caused by partisan stifle. For this reason, two more categories extend from