Question

What are party whips in Congress? How do they influence legislation?

Answer 1

A party whip is an official in political parties of a number of countries, which ensures party discipline in legislative bodies. The party whip forces party members to vote in accordance with the party’s position, and also monitors the personal presence of deputies during legislative meetings.

The role of the party whip is typical for countries with a majoritarian electoral system, in which small parties are usually cut off, and only a small number of large parties are represented in parliaments (usually two or three). This leads to the fact that the degree of internal party disagreement in such large parliamentary parties is significantly higher than in the parties of countries with a proportional electoral system, where the composition of parliamentary factions is noticeably more uniform.

Answer 2

Party whips in Congress are a group of assistants to the floor leaders of their party whose main tasks consist of making sure that these floor leaders (or legislators) attend voting sessions and of imposing discipline and direction to them as well in order to secure enough votes to pass measures that are congruent with the party's platform, and to defeat measures that the party does not want. This way, party whips guarantee that legislators do not vote according to their ideologies, but according to the party's ideology.

Therefore, party whips influence legislation because they mobilize votes within their parties on any issue by ensuring that legislators vote according to the party's desired measures.