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Electoral Incentives In Congress
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Book Synopsis Electoral Incentives in Congress by : Jamie L Carson
Download or read book Electoral Incentives in Congress written by Jamie L Carson and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2018-05-25 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Mayhew’s 1974 thesis on the “electoral connection” and its impact on legislative behavior is the theoretical foundation for research on the modern U.S. Congress. Mayhew contends that once in office, legislators pursue the actions that put them in the best position for reelection. The electoral connection is a post-World War II phenomenon, but legislative scholars now suggest that Mayhew’s argument applies to earlier congressional eras. To assess these claims, Carson and Sievert investigate whether earlier legislators were motivated by the same factors that influence their behavior today, especially in pursuit of reelection. They examine how electoral incentives shape legislative behavior throughout the nineteenth century by looking at patterns of turnover in Congress; the re-nomination of candidates; the roles of parties in recruiting candidates, and by extension their broader effects on candidate competition; and, finally by examining legislators’ accountability. The results have wide-ranging implications for the evolution of Congress and the development of various legislative institutions over time.
Book Synopsis Electoral Incentives in Congress by : Jamie L. Carson
Download or read book Electoral Incentives in Congress written by Jamie L. Carson and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2018-05-25 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legislators in the 19th century behaved much as we expect legislators to behave today.
Download or read book Congress written by David R. Mayhew and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-10 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Any short list of major analyses of Congress must of necessity include David Mayhew’s Congress: The Electoral Connection." —Fred Greenstein In this second edition to a book that has achieved canonical status, David R. Mayhew argues that the principal motivation of legislators is reelection and that the pursuit of this goal affects the way they behave and the way that they make public policy. In a new foreword for this edition, R. Douglas Arnold discusses why the book revolutionized the study of Congress and how it has stood the test of time.
Book Synopsis Obstruction, Opposition, and Partisan Conflict by :
Download or read book Obstruction, Opposition, and Partisan Conflict written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Existing research on political parties in Congress focuses almost exclusively on the majority party. I argue that this inattention to the minority party hampers our understanding of Congress, particularly with regard to the sources of partisan conflict in the House of Representatives. In the series of essays that follow, I show that patterns of legislative obstruction, requests for roll-call votes, and party voting are affected by minority party electoral incentives. The minority's electoral incentive to oppose the majority party, to obstruct majority-party initiatives, to place vulnerable members of the opposing party on the record on difficult votes, among other things, makes the minority party a significant source of partisan conflict in the House. Results from this project suggest that understanding variation in the likelihood that the minority party will retake majority control of the chamber can help explain patterns in obstruction and conflict over time. Minority parties in the nineneenth century that expected favorable election results were more likely to engage in obstructionist efforts; minority parties expecting electoral success in the contemporary House are more likely to vote with their party and place themselves on the losing side of roll-call votes. Results also suggest that the roll-call record, on which measures of legislator ideology and partisan voting behavior are based, is itself partially a product of strategic manipulation by the minority party. Minority party roll-call requesting behavior has the effect of making the House appear more partisan and more ideologically polarized, and making electorally vulnerable members of the majority party appear more partisan and ideological. Implications of these results suggest that, while competitive elections are typically considered to be desirable, competitive party systems provide incentives for partisanship, obstruction, and conflict - the type of legislative behavior that Americans profess to dislike about Congress.
Book Synopsis Insecure Majorities by : Frances E. Lee
Download or read book Insecure Majorities written by Frances E. Lee and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] tour de force. Building upon her argument in Beyond Ideology, she adds an important wrinkle into the current divide between the parties in Congress.” —Perspectives on Politics As Democrats and Republicans continue to vie for political advantage, Congress remains paralyzed by partisan conflict. That the last two decades have seen some of the least productive Congresses in recent history is usually explained by the growing ideological gulf between the parties, but this explanation misses another fundamental factor influencing the dynamic. In contrast to politics through most of the twentieth century, the contemporary Democratic and Republican parties compete for control of Congress at relative parity, and this has dramatically changed the parties’ incentives and strategies in ways that have driven the contentious partisanship characteristic of contemporary American politics. With Insecure Majorities, Frances E. Lee offers a controversial new perspective on the rise of congressional party conflict, showing how the shift in competitive circumstances has had a profound impact on how Democrats and Republicans interact. Beginning in the 1980s, most elections since have offered the prospect of a change of party control. Lee shows, through an impressive range of interviews and analysis, how competition for control of the government drives members of both parties to participate in actions that promote their own party’s image and undercut that of the opposition, including the perpetual hunt for issues that can score political points by putting the opposing party on the wrong side of public opinion. More often than not, this strategy stands in the way of productive bipartisan cooperation—and it is also unlikely to change as long as control of the government remains within reach for both parties.
Book Synopsis The Power of the People by : Sean M. Theriault
Download or read book The Power of the People written by Sean M. Theriault and published by Ohio State University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Americans, Congress, and Democratic Responsiveness by : David R Jones
Download or read book Americans, Congress, and Democratic Responsiveness written by David R Jones and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The public's satisfaction with Congress determines policy shifts as well as turnovers at election time
Book Synopsis All Politics is Local by : Travis Miller Johnston
Download or read book All Politics is Local written by Travis Miller Johnston and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What qualifies as good or bad representation has plagued scholars and officeholders for years. These studies often focus on outputs of two general types: the distribution of particularistic goods, allocative responsiveness, and the member’s position on roll call votes, policy responsiveness. My dissertation unites these disparate literatures on representation, asking a simple but fundamental question: what are elites doing, and how do constituents respond? Early work on electoral incentives contends that a record of narrow distributive accomplishments is essential to winning reelection. Broader policy achievements, however, are believed to be either too difficult to take credit for, or of little import to the member’s constituency. My dissertation challenges the notion that member strategies and voter responses continue to operate along these lines. Compared to the early 1970s, actors in the contemporary political environment are better sorted along policy lines at every level, from elites in the beltway to activists in the electorate. This means that an officeholder’s core supporters are more interested in their record on policy. Moreover, by taking credit for centrist policy achievements, officeholders can avoid alienating moderates. For a first cut at constituent preferences, I examine what voters like about their representative, and how these trends have changed over time. Since the 1970s, the percent of respondents who identify distributive goods as a reason for liking their member of Congress has remained fairly flat, whereas justifications based on specific policies has risen steadily. Digging deeper, these data suggest that reliable voters, activists, and donors are most likely to provide policy justifications. Distributive answers are not correlated with these measures of electoral intensity. If distributive and policy strategies appeal to different electorates, then the latter may produce greater returns by motivating those groups most vital to reelection. To evaluate these claims further, I deployed a series of experiments to test the conditions under which voters are receptive to representatives who focus on broad policy achievements. I find that policy-based credit claims can be just as effective as pork. Building on these initial results, I fielded a second set of experiments using a simulated news story about two anonymous incumbents running for a redistricted seat. In the end, I find that constituents often prefer policy-based records, but this choice is driven by the issue area and ideological position of the policy. After examining representation from the voter’s perspective, I then examine novel data on the advertising strategies of members of Congress. If campaign messaging reflects a member’s perception of the respective benefits from distributive and policy work, then ad buys afford a unique way of studying electoral strategies under a budget constraint. Looking at the 2008 elections, I find that broader legislative appeals are actually more common than distributive credit claims, both in terms of the number of airings and in dollars spent. Finally, I synthesize many of the earlier findings by combining the advertising data set with survey data on voter behavior and legislative effectiveness. By merging the member-level campaign variables with individual-level data, I show that policy appeals are not only common in congressional campaigns, but also potentially more beneficial at the ballot box. Using a series of multi-level models, I find that spending on broader policy achievements is consistently correlated with vote choice, whereas the benefits of other forms of campaign advertising are less apparent. What is more, when the sample is restricted to incumbents, I find that those who prioritize policy ads are relatively more productive in office. This finding demonstrates the value of advertising data. These results suggest that the tradeoff between local distributive goods and broader policy is significantly misunderstood with respect to voters and representatives alike. The implications of these findings extend beyond the reelection prospects of a single incumbent. Indeed, the collective outputs of Congress depend upon whether individual members spend their time working on local goods or national policy. If officeholders overindulge on narrow particularistic goods, then the chamber fails to pass large policy accomplishments. Representation, I contend, is driven less by a motivation to allocate, and more from an incentive to run on policy. While the end goal may differ, individual incentives continue to undercut the outputs of Congress as a whole. If individual members are unwilling to compromise on policy issues, then Congress runs the risk of producing little more than gridlock and empty position-taking.
Book Synopsis Governing in a Polarized Age by : Alan S. Gerber
Download or read book Governing in a Polarized Age written by Alan S. Gerber and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-27 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an in-depth examination of representation and legislative performance in contemporary American politics.
Download or read book Super PACs written by Louise I. Gerdes and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.
Book Synopsis The Logic of Congressional Action by : R. Douglas Arnold
Download or read book The Logic of Congressional Action written by R. Douglas Arnold and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress regularly enacts laws that benefit particular groups or localities while imposing costs on everyone else. Sometimes, however, Congress breaks free of such parochial concerns and enacts bills that serve the general public, not just special interest groups. In this important and original book, R. Douglas Arnold offers a theory that explains not only why special interests frequently triumph but also why the general public sometimes wins. By showing how legislative leaders build coalitions for both types of programs, he illuminates recent legislative decisions in such areas as economic, tax, and energy policy. Arnold's theory of policy making rests on a reinterpretation of the relationship between legislators' actions and their constituents' policy preferences. Most scholars explore the impact that citizens' existing policy preferences have on legislators' decisions. They ignore citizens who have no opinions because they assume that uninformed citizens cannot possibly affect legislators' choices. Arnold examines the influence of citizens' potential preferences, however, and argues that legislators also respond to these preferences in order to avoid future electoral problems. He shows how legislators estimate the political consequences of their voting decisions, taking into account both the existing preferences of attentive citizens and the potential preferences of inattentive citizens. He then analyzes how coalition leaders manipulate the legislative situation in order to make it attractive for legislators to support a general interest bill.
Book Synopsis Legislative Voting and Accountability by : John M. Carey
Download or read book Legislative Voting and Accountability written by John M. Carey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legislatures are the core representative institutions in modern democracies. Citizens want legislatures to be decisive, and they want accountability, but they are frequently disillusioned with the representation legislators deliver. Political parties can provide decisiveness in legislatures, and they may provide collective accountability, but citizens and political reformers frequently demand another type of accountability from legislators – at the individual level. Can legislatures provide both kinds of accountability? This book considers what collective and individual accountability require and provides the most extensive cross-national analysis of legislative voting undertaken to date. It illustrates the balance between individualistic and collective representation in democracies, and how party unity in legislative voting shapes that balance. In addition to quantitative analysis of voting patterns, the book draws on extensive field and archival research to provide an extensive assessment of legislative transparency throughout the Americas.
Book Synopsis Party Ballots, Reform, and the Transformation of America's Electoral System by : Erik J. Engstrom
Download or read book Party Ballots, Reform, and the Transformation of America's Electoral System written by Erik J. Engstrom and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-27 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that nineteenth-century electoral politics were the product of institutions that prescribed how votes were cast and were converted into political offices.
Book Synopsis Collective Accountability in Congressional Elections Conditions of Accountability & Implications for Legislative Incentives by : Carlos Andres Algara
Download or read book Collective Accountability in Congressional Elections Conditions of Accountability & Implications for Legislative Incentives written by Carlos Andres Algara and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines the dynamics of congressional representation during the emergence of relatively responsible party government in the United States. Recent developments in elite-level polarization and legislative unity has led scholars to remark that the United States Congress features more responsible and stronger parties. In turn, this clarifies the degree of legislative responsibility surrounding the successful passage of congressional policies and the ideological nature of the congressional party agenda. Building on recent work positing the emergence of a party system closer to the responsible party government}ideal, this dissertation explores the dynamics by which congressional representation in the United States becomes more partisan-centered during this emerging era of responsible party government. The first chapter of the dissertation examines the changing nature of U.S. Senate election outcomes as the congressional parties become more polarized. Using a novel dataset of aggregate Senate elections during the entire direct-election era (1914-2016), I find strong evidence that, during heightened periods of polarization, the salience of partisanship in determining Senate election outcomes increases. The key exception of this illustration are Senators representing politically hostile states (i.e., Democratic Senators representing Republican leaning states), which are capable of adapting their personal brands in light of greater ideological polarization between the parties. In the second chapter, I turn my attention to the question of whether citizens use their ideological preferences and the ideological agendas of both congressional parties to evaluate the collective job performance of the U.S. Congress. Given the rise of more polarized and unified congressional parties, I find evidence for a theory suggesting that evaluations of congressional job performance are a function of both partisan identity and the ideological proximity between citizen preferences and the ideological locations of both congressional parties. Lastly, the third chapter builds on the finding that citizen approval of Congress is premised on the collective ideological representation provided by the majority party by finding support for a theory of collective accountability in congressional elections. This theory of collective accountability argues that citizen assessments of congressional job performance motivates both their propensity to participate in electoral accountability and, ultimately, their district-level electoral choice.
Book Synopsis More Than Money by : Richard M. Skinner
Download or read book More Than Money written by Richard M. Skinner and published by Campaigning American Style. This book was released on 2007 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While interest groups have long been at the center of the study of American politics, most explorations of their influence have tended to dwell on lobbying. When political scientists do look at groups' electoral activities, they tend to study contribution activity by political action committees. But a whole world of political activity has emerged that is not confined to PAC contributions. Activities such as issue advocacy, independent expenditures, and voter mobilization go well beyond the limits set by federal law (specifically, the $5,000 cap on PAC contributions). More than Money is the first attempt to understand this world of interest group action in a theoretical fashion. It links empirical data gathered through ten case studies to broader ideas about interest groups, political parties, and congressional elections. It examines what resources groups possess for political action, how they are linked to the incentives groups offer to members, and how groups can apply those resources effectively. It also looks at how groups adapt to changing political and legal contexts. More than Money does all this in a clear, accessible style and with numerous quotations from top players at interest groups such as NARAL and the NRA.
Book Synopsis The Politics Industry by : Katherine M. Gehl
Download or read book The Politics Industry written by Katherine M. Gehl and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country. The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens. Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected. In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today. Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all. THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.
