论文摘要：国会研究已成为国内美国研究的新重点。然而，作者在查阅大量文献之后发现，虽然国会两党之间的分化已成为美国学者的研究重点之一，但是还没有中国学者注意该现象。本文尝试对两党分化的原因及后果进行分析，以填补国内国会研究在这方面的空缺。从20世纪70年以来，国会两党在内部日趋团结的同时，它们在意识形态上的差距越来越大，结果是两党分化越来越严重。作者认为，南方党派重组、国会内部立法制度的改革、以及金钱在国会选举中的重要性不断增加，是造成国会两党分化最重要的因素。两党分化的一个重要后果就是，国会多数党不得不经常通过非常手段来实现其立法目标。另一个后果就是国会的整体立法效率降低。 U.S. Congress has become a major focus of research in American studies in China. While party polarization has become a major research area for American scholars, no Chinese scholar to my knowledge has paid attention to the phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to fill up this research gap by analyzing the causes and consequences of party polarization. Since the 1970s, while inter-party heterogeneity has grown dramatically, intra-party homogeneity has also increased substantially at the same time, thus resulting in increasing polarization. I argue that party realignment in the South, legislative reforms, and the increasing role of money in congressional elections are the three most important causes of polarization. One consequence of party polarization is that the majority party has to frequently use unorthodox means to achieve its legislative goals. Another consequence is that the overall legislative efficiency decreases.

meixue1983  金钱 +30  好文章 2009-5-31 13:05:23