The Resilient Democracy Lab at UNSW promotes and supports theoretical and empirical research on the robustness of democratic institutions. We study how economic, political, and cultural factors affect the robustness of democratic institutions and how we can design institutions that foster democratic resilience against the rise of extremisms, illiberalism, and majoritarianism.

Listen to Barton E. Lee discussing "From Gridlock to Polarization" (joint with Marc S. Jacob and G. Gratton) on Not Another Politics Podcast.

LATEST NEWS

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

GRIDLOCK, LEVERAGE, AND POLICY BUNDLING

Author: Barton E. Lee

There is a growing concern that American institutions and government have become incapable of passing timely legislation. A symptom of this is legislative gridlock. Policy bundling—a feature of the U.S. Congress that allows legislators to bundle diverse and unrelated proposals- has long been held as a solution to reduce gridlock. This study shows that the received wisdom is incorrect: policy bundling can increase gridlock.