Over the past 50 years, partisan polarization—the ideological distance between the typical Democratic and the average Republican legislator—has widened in California. This article asks whether growing polarization has led to increasing legislative gridlock. Borrowing the approach of the...

This brief essay explains how the Suspense File works, explores its effects on voting patterns and policy outcomes, and outlines options for reform. It draws on evidence from Cox, Kousser, and McCubbins (2010), an article that will appear in a 2010 issue of the leading peer-reviewed Journal of...