Task Force on
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 deals.
United States
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.
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, fromEurope , from international relations, and from cognitive
psychology.
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 deals.
This
report explores the problems of political negotiation in the United States
Executive Summary
Negotiating Agreement in Politics
The breakdown of political negotiation within
Congress today is puzzling in several important
respects. The 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
lessons from success stories in political
negotiation, and offers practical advice for how diverseinterests 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
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,” focuses on the two main cognitive mistakes that interfere with the
parties seeing and realizing all that they could from their interaction.
Drawing from almost a half -century’s worth of scholarship on negotiation and
recent work in cognitive psychology, the chapter shows how fixed-pie bias can blind up to 60% of participants to the
possible gains in a negotiation, and it shows how self-serving bias often produces impasse even when both parties can
gain from agreement.
More (including diagrams) at the “Executive Summary” pdf
file from: https://www.apsanet.org/negotiatingagreement/
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