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Dissertation
Virtually Representative?
University of West Florida Libraries
Doctor of Education (EDD), University of West Florida
2013
Abstract
Democratic theorists focus on the character of representation (Pitkin, 1967) and the types of representation provided by Members of Congress (Mansbridge, 2003). Representational scholarship has examined communication and representation from the vantage points of Member representational style (Fenno, 1978), committee participation (Hall, 1996), floor voting, and constituent policy congruence (Miller & Stokes, 1963). Yet, despite the Internet's potential to transform political dialogue (Schlozman et al., 2010), the field of congressional studies has largely neglected the impact of virtual public space on representational behavior. Of the studies addressing this impact, none examine how the Internet is shaping information exchanges from constituent to Member or how the Internet might be strategically used by Members to direct constituent correspondence. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the scholarship by assessing the quality of facilitation of communication flowing from constituent to the Member on Member websites, or the Member's online accessibility. I code Member websites in 2012 to capture online accessibility and conceptualize four modes of Member accessibility: delegate accessibility, bureaucratic liaison accessibility, district accessibility, and email accessibility. I use logistic and OLS regression analysis to capture the relationship between Member-level and district-level predictors of a Member's online accessibility.
Details
- Title
- Virtually Representative?
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Contributors
- William B. Tankersley (Committee Member)Alfred G. Cuzán (Committee Member) - University of West Florida, College of Arts, Social Sciences, and HumanitiesJocelyn J Evans (Committee Chair) - University of West Florida, Kugelman Honors Program
- Publisher
- University of West Florida Libraries
- Format
- pdf
- Number of pages
- 77
- Copyright
- Permission granted to the University of West Florida Libraries to digitize and/or display this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires the permission of the copyright holder.
- Identifiers
- 99380090865506600
- Academic Unit
- School of Education
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Doctor of Education (EDD)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Education (EDD), University of West Florida