David R. Mayhew (Born May 18, 1937) is a political scientist and Sterling Professor in the Political Science Department at Yale University. He is the author of several influential books on American politics.
In Congress: The Electoral Connection, Mayhew argued that much of the organization of the United States Congress can be explained as the result of re-election seeking behavior by its members. In Divided We Govern, he disputed the previously accepted notion that, when Congress and the presidency are controlled by different parties, less important legislation is passed than under unified government. His most recent book, Partison Balance: Why Political parties Don't Kill the U.S. Constitutional System (Princeton University Press, 2011) contends that majoritarianism largely characterizes the American system. The wishes of the majority tend to nudge institutions back toward the median voter.[1] Partisan Balance won the 2011 Leon D. Epstein Outstanding Award from the American Political Science Association.
Mayhew earned another Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1964. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004, he received the Samuel J. Eldersveld Award for lifetime achievement from the American Political Science Association.