Dataset that tracks control of the United States House of Representatives, Senate, and Executive Branch.
Variables should be fairly self-explanatory, but are as follows:
congress: Numeric identifier of Congressional session
year.start: Start year of Congressional session
year.end: End year of Congressional session
senate.total: Total number of Senate seats in that session
senate.dems: Total number of Democrats in Senate
senate.dem.perc: Percentage of Senators from Democratic Party
senate.reps: Total number of Republicans in Senate
senate.rep.perc: Percentage of Senators from Republican Party
senate.others: Number of independents in Senate
senate.vacancies: Number of vacancies in Senate (in total)
senate.dem.control: Democratic Party controlled Senate
senate.rep.control: Republican Party controlled Senate
house.total: Total number of House seats in that session
house.dems: Total number of Democrats in House
house.dem.perc: Percentage of House Reps from Democratic Party
house.reps: Total number of Republicans in House
house.rep.perc: Percentage of House Reps from Republican Party
house.others: Number of independents in House
house.vacancies: Number of vacancies in House (in total)
house.dem.control: Democratic Party controlled House
house.rep.control: Republican Party controlled House
congress.dem.control: Democratic Party controlled both chambers
congress.rep.control: Republican Party controlled both chambers
congress.div.control: Chambers divided between Democrats/Republicans
pres.dem: Dummy variable indicating Democratic president
pres.rep: Dummy variable indicating Republican president
pres: Name of president
A few notes about Senate control
In several Congressional sessions Democrats gained an effective majority in the U.S. Senate due to independents caucausing with the Democratic Party. These sessions have been noted as being under Democratic control as a result:
- 107th Senate (only under Republican control from January-May 2001)
- 110th Senate
The 111th Senate is a tough one to code for an entire session, as it varied in Democratic control of 56-58 seats at multiple time points. However, the predominant breakdown was 57 Democrats to 41 Republicans, with two independents caucausing with the Democrats.
Presidents Leaving Early
In cases where presidents left office due to death, resignation, or impeachment, the president who occupied the Oval Office for the majority of that period was coded for. With the exception of Republican Abraham Lincoln's assassination (and Democratic/National Union Party Andrew Johnson's ascendance), no shifts in party control occurred due to early departure from that office.