Filibuster

Holding the floor to stall a vote, widely called the filibuster, has long been part of how the U.S. Senate works. This book asks how the chamber kept lawmaking going in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when it had no formal rules that seem necessary to govern debate. Why did the Senate not collapse into disorder during that era?

The authors contend that the looming possibility of changing the rules kept lengthy debates from spiraling out of control, even though the habits shaped by inherited procedures did not lock those rules in place. To test this, they combine broad quantitative analysis with close studies of specific episodes across a wide span of history. They also trace how the country's growth and the shift to direct election of senators reshaped debate rules, and how those changes affected the Senate's day-to-day functioning.

The final section links earlier struggles over obstruction in the Senate to recent disputes over judicial nominations.