Reflections on the Practice of Theorizing: Conditional Party Government in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This article focuses on the theory of Conditional Party Government (CPG). It seeks to recapitulate the development of the argument for CPG, pulling together various strands articulated during work on the theory over the last four decades in order to explain why the theory took the form it did. The discussion focuses on some of the most important evidence that relates to the predictions of CPG, in order to account for the evolution of the theory over time in interaction with that evidence. It also offers some reflections at various points on the implications of this theoretical and empirical effort for the study of Congress.