Partisan Compromise

Is it possible to reconcile the principled commitments of partisanship with a larger set of institutional constraints? What burdens of compromise does the task of government introduce, and how are they best negotiated? This chapter explores the nature of partisan compromise, the relationship between compromise and integrity, and the challenge of compromising with one’s political adversaries. It further asks whether partisan compromise should be understood as principled or pragmatic and offers an account of partisan virtue that steers a middle ground between a sectarian approach that deems all compromise unacceptable and an opportunistic one that empties the party of its foundational commitments.