Factional Governance: What a More Balanced Congress Looks Like
Reviving factions within Congress can restore balance, foster collaboration, and make government work for the people again.
Congress isn’t working—not for the people, not for democracy, and certainly not as the Founders intended. Over the last few decades, it’s become a place of gridlock and grandstanding, where leadership consolidates power, and partisanship dictates every move.
But it wasn’t always this way. And it doesn’t have to stay this way.
For much of American history, factions within parties helped balance power, foster creativity, and force meaningful negotiation. These coalitions weren’t perfect, but they provided a structure that allowed Congress to reflect the diversity of thought within the American public.
Reviving factional governance could be the key to unlocking a more balanced, functional Congress—one that values collaboration over conflict and progress over performance.
The Problem with Polarized Congress
Today’s Congress is dominated by strong party leadership and ideologically homogeneous caucuses (although we’ve seen this crack with groups like The Squad and the Freedom Caucus). This concentration of power creates a toxic dynamic:
Rigid Partisanship: Members are discouraged from crossing party lines, even on issues where there’s common ground.
Stifled Creativity: Leadership controls the agenda, leaving little room for individual members to innovate or propose new ideas.
Negative Partisanship: Members are driven more by opposing the other party than by advancing their own solutions.
The result? Legislative gridlock, public distrust, and a Congress that feels increasingly disconnected from the diverse views of the American people.
What Is Factional Governance?
Factional governance occurs when smaller, organized coalitions within parties wield influence, negotiate across divides, and drive legislative innovation. Factions can reflect regional, ideological, or issue-based interests, creating a more nuanced and flexible system of governance.
Instead of a rigid two-party dichotomy, factional governance introduces more voices, more ideas, and more opportunities for consensus.
How Factions Could Rebalance Congress
A more factional Congress would bring several key benefits to our democracy:
1. Diverse Representation
Factions allow Congress to reflect the true diversity of the American electorate. Not every Democrat is a progressive, and not every Republican is a populist. Factions give moderates, independents, and issue-specific coalitions a voice.
2. Increased Collaboration
Factions within parties can act as bridges, fostering cross-party coalitions. For example, a market-oriented environmental faction could find common ground with a climate-conscious conservative faction, advancing policies that address climate change without alienating core constituencies.
3. Decentralized Power
Factional governance decentralizes power from party leadership, empowering rank-and-file members to take a more active role in shaping policy. This encourages innovation and legislative entrepreneurship.
4. Reduced Gridlock
With multiple factions at the table, there’s less reliance on rigid party-line votes. Members are freer to work with colleagues across the aisle, making it easier to pass legislation that addresses the country’s most pressing challenges.
What a More Balanced Congress Could Look Like
Imagine a Congress where factional governance is the norm:
Negotiation Becomes Standard: Leadership doesn’t dictate every vote. Instead, factions negotiate to build coalitions on a case-by-case basis, ensuring more voices are heard in the process.
Creativity Flourishes: Members aren’t just followers of party leadership; they’re entrepreneurs of ideas, proposing bold solutions to complex problems.
Trust Rebuilds: Voters see Congress as a place where things get done—not just a nursing home of conflict. When representatives work together across divides, public faith in the institution grows.
For example, a bipartisan faction dedicated to mental health reform could bring together lawmakers from both sides—conservative leaders focused on supporting veterans and law enforcement, and progressive champions advocating for community health access. Together, they could craft legislation to expand mental health services in schools, improve crisis response programs, and increase funding for telehealth initiatives in underserved areas, proving that collaboration can address one of the nation’s most urgent challenges.
The Role of Mavericks in Factional Governance
Mavericks thrive in a factional Congress. They are the bridge-builders, the negotiators, and the innovators who refuse to accept the status quo of polarization.
As members of factions, Mavericks could:
Build coalitions across party lines on specific issues.
Push back against extremist voices within their own parties.
Amplify the voices of moderate voters who feel ignored by today’s system.
Mavericks aren’t afraid to challenge their party leadership. In a factional system, that courage isn’t a liability—it’s an asset.
How We Get There
Reviving factional governance won’t happen overnight. It requires both structural changes and cultural shifts:
Elect Pro-Democracy Candidates: Support leaders who value collaboration and independence over party loyalty by showing up to vote in primaries.
Encourage Legislative Entrepreneurship: Empower members of Congress to take ownership of the policymaking process.
Build Factional Ecosystems: Create the think tanks, advocacy groups, and grassroots networks needed to support factional efforts.
Above all, it requires voters who are willing to reward courage, creativity, and compromise. Mavericks will build the muscle behind these voters by creating organizations at the local level to mobilize volunteers.
Why Factional Governance Matters
Factional governance isn’t a nostalgic throwback to a different era of politics—it’s a blueprint for the future. It’s a way to make Congress more responsive, more balanced, and more effective.
In a divided nation, we need a Congress that can rise above partisanship and deliver real solutions. Factions can provide the flexibility and collaboration our democracy so desperately needs.
Join the Fight for a Better Congress
If you believe Congress can do better—if you’re ready to reject polarization and fight for balance—then it’s time to act.
Support candidates who champion collaboration. Organize for leaders who refuse to bow to the extremes. And above all, stay engaged in the fight for a more functional democracy.
The future of Congress is factional. Let’s build it together.
Intrigued by this idea? Want to read the longer, more technical version? Check out this great article by political scientists Steven Teles and Robert Saldin.
Love this Substack! And, I love the articulation of the issue and the vision of Factional Governance. The ideas of “How we get there” (Elect Pro-democracy candidates: Encourage legislative entrepreneurship; build factional ecosystems) are great but face challenges.
Probably for many reasons, but the role of money and lack of incentives to encourage the desired behaviors are two major reasons.
For example, the control of selecting candidates in primaries that are mostly partisan primaries and heavily influenced by parties and their funders make it difficult for Mavericks to get in the race and have a chance of getting through the partisan primary successfully.
Similar challenges face trying to create the factional ecosystem as well including getting funders to recognize the value in funding it. Many large donors enjoy the influence they have and are able to gain in the current system.
So the question is whether trying to get voters to want something and even trying to will it to happen is enough? Are the barriers and incentives created by the existing system too high? Should we also be trying to change the system by limiting the influence of money and allowing every voter to have their vote matter by allowing them to vote for any candidate in every taxpayer funded election? Should we require winners of elections have some level of support from a majority of their people vote?
Eliminating publicly funded partisan primaries, addressing the issue of money in politics and using something other than plurality winner elections might be examples of how voters can change the system and have the influence to help begin bring back a government that governs the way your vision beautifully describes.