Negotiating Agreement in Politics edited by Jane Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin with Sarah Binder, Frances Lee, Nolan McCarty, John Odell, Dustin Tingley & Mark Warren A MERIC A N P OLITIC A L S CIENCE A ss OCI A TION | T as K F ORCE R E P ORT | 2013 Negotiating Agreement in Politics Report of the Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics Edited by Jane Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin December 2013 American Political Science Association 1527 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036-1206 Copyright 2013 by the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-878147-47-9 Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics Task Force Members Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University, APSA President 2012-2013 Cathie Jo Martin, Boston University Linda Babcock, Carnegie Mellon University Michael Minta, University of Missouri André Bächtiger, University of Lucerne Robert Mnookin, Harvard University Law School Max Bazerman, Harvard Business School Andrew Moravcsik, Princeton University Sarah Binder, George Washington University Kimberly Morgan, George Washington University Emile Bruneau, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Daniel Naurin, University of Gothenburg Max Cameron, University of British Columbia John Odell, University of California, Co-Chair Andrea Campbell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology David Rand, Yale University Simone Chambers, University of Toronto Christine Reh, University College London Thomas Edsall, Columbia and New York Times Laurie Santos, Yale University John Ferejohn, Stanford & New York University Rebecca Saxe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Morris Fiorina, Stanford University Eric Schickler, University of California, Berkeley Robert Frank, Cornell University Melissa Schwartzberg, Columbia University Torben Iversen, Harvard University James Sebenius, Harvard University Alan Jacobs, University of British Columbia Janice Gross Stein, University of Toronto Robert Keohane, Princeton University Cass Sunstein, Harvard University Law School Andrew Kydd, University of Wisconsin Yael Tamir, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design Geoffrey Layman, University of Notre Dame Dennis Thompson, Harvard University James A. Leach, University of Iowa School of Law Dustin Tingley, Harvard University, Co-Chair Frances Lee, University of Maryland Sonia Wallace, Rutgers University Ashley Leeds, Rice University Barbara Walter, University of California, San Diego George Lowenstein, Carnegie Mellon University Mark E. Warren, University of British Columbia Julia Lynch, University of Pennsylvania Melissa Williams, University of Toronto Fen Hampson, Carleton University Cornelia Woll, Sciences Po Thomas Mann, Brookings Institution I. William Zartman, Johns Hopkins University Nolan McCarty, Princeton University Jonathan Zeitlin, University of Amsterdam ii American Political Science Association Table of Contents TASK FORCE MEMBERS ...................................................... .II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................... V EXECUTIVE SUmmARY ...................................................... VI INTRODUCTION 1. NEGOTIATING POLITICAL AGREEMENTS ..................................... 1 Michael Minta, University of Missouri Cathie Jo Martin Robert Mnookin, Harvard University Law School Andrew Moravcsik, Princeton University Kimberly Morgan, George Washington University STALEMATE IN THE UNITED STATES Daniel Naurin, University of Gothenburg 2. CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF POLARIZATION ............................. 19 John Odell, University of California, Co-Chair Michael Barber and Nolan McCarty David Rand, Yale University Working group: Andrea Campbell, Thomas Edsall, Morris Fiorina, Christine Reh, University College London Geoffrey Layman, James Leach, Frances Lee, Thomas Mann, Michael Laurie Santos, Yale University Minta, Eric Schickler, and Sophia Wallace Rebecca Saxe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Eric Schickler, University of California, Berkeley 3. MAKING DEALS IN CONGRESS ............................................. 54 Melissa Schwartzberg, Columbia University James Sebenius, Harvard University Sarah Binder and Frances Lee Janice Gross Stein, University of Toronto Cass Sunstein, Harvard University Law School THE PROBLEM: NEGOTIATION MYOPIA; THE SOLUTION: DELIBERATIVE Yael Tamir, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design NEGOTIATION Dennis Thompson, Harvard University 4. NEGOTIATION MYOPIA .................................................. 73 Dustin Tingley, Harvard University, Co-Chair Chase Foster, Jane Mansbridge, and Cathie Jo Martin Sonia Wallace, Rutgers University Barbara Walter, University of California, San Diego Working group: Linda Babcock, Max Bazerman, Emile Bruneau, George Mark E. Warren, University of British Columbia Loewenstein, David Rand, Robert Frank, Robert Mnookin, Laurie Santos, Rebecca Saxe, and Cass Sunstein Melissa Williams, University of Toronto Cornelia Woll, Sciences Po I. William Zartman, Johns Hopkins University Jonathan Zeitlin, University of Amsterdam Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics iii Table of Contents 5. DELIBERATIVE NEGOTIATION ............................................... 86 Mark Warren and Jane Mansbridge Working group: André Bächtiger, Maxwell A. Cameron, Simone Chambers, John Ferejohn, Alan Jacobs, Jack Knight, Daniel Naurin, Melissa Schwartzberg, Yael Tamir, Dennis Thompson, and Melissa Williams INSTITUTIONS AND RULES OF COLLECTIVE POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT 6. CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATION: LESSONS FROM EUROPE .......... 121 Cathie Jo Martin Working group: Andrew Moravcsik, John Ferejohn, Torben Iversen, Alan Jacobs, Julia Lynch, Kimberly Morgan, Christine Reh, Cornelia Woll, and Jonathan Zeitlin 7. NEGOTIATING AGREEMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS .................... 144 John S. Odell and Dustin Tingley Working group: Fen Osler Hampson, Andrew H. Kydd, Brett Ashley Leeds, James K. Sebenius, Janice Gross Stein, Barbara F. Walter, and I. William Zartman iv American Political Science Association Acknowledgements We are grateful to Kimberly Mealy, Michael Brintnall and Steven Smith at the APSA for their dedication and help in this project. Chase Foster provided exemplary research assistance, while Bruce Jackan and Juanne Zhao of the Ash Center at the Kennedy School were extremely helpful in the early stages of the project. We are grateful to many institutions and their supportive staff for making this project possible. We thank the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School for supporting the Cognitive Bias Working Group, the US Working Group, and part of the European Working Group; the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at the University of British Columbia for supporting the Normative Working Group; the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University for supporting the International Relations Working Group; and the APSA for supporting part of the European Working Group as well as a meeting of representatives of all working groups at the 2013 Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting. In particular we thank the APSA for publishing this report and Liane Piñero-Kluge for her commitment, effort, and good will in the publication process. As always, Cathie Jo Martin thanks her husband and children – Jim, Julian and Jack Milkey – for their love and choice one-liners about the art of politics. Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics v Executive Summary Negotiating Agreement in Politics The breakdown of political negotiation within Congress today is puzzling in several important respects. The United States used to be viewed as a land of broad consensus and pragmatic politics in which sharp ideological differences were largely absent; yet today politics is dominated by intense party polarization and limited agreement among representatives on policy problems and solutions. Americans pride themselves on their community spirit, civic engagement, and dynamic society, yet we are handicapped by our national political institutions, which often—but not always—stifle the popular desire for policy innovation and political reforms. The separation of powers helps to explain why Congress has a difficult time taking action, but many countries that have severe institutional hurdles to easy majoritarian rule still produce political negotiations that encompass the interests and values of broad majorities. This report explores the problems of political negotiation in the United States, provides lessons from success stories in political negotiation, and offers practical advice for how diverse interests might overcome their narrow disagreements to negotiate win-win solutions. We suggest that political negotiation is often essential to democratic rule, yet negotiating is difficult to do. First, the human brain makes mistakes that stymie even good-faith efforts. Second, our own Congress today faces greater structural obstacles to successful negotiation than at any time in the past century. Members of Congress themselves have identified many of the reforms within Congress that would produce such joint gains. We support those proposals with data from studies of the Congress, from Europe, from international relations, and from cognitive psychology. The Human Brain Our analysis throughout this report applies only to “tractable” situations in which both or all parties to a negotiation could gain. We use the term negotiation myopia to describe the inability to see these available joint gains. Chapter 4, titled “Negotiation Myopia,”