Journal article
Consistency versus Responsiveness: Do Members of Congress Change Positions on Specific Issues in Response to Their Districts?
Political research quarterly, Vol.70(1), pp.3-18
03/01/2017
Web of Science ID: WOS:000394649500001
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Abstract
While democratic theory suggests that representatives should be willing to adjust their issue positions to adapt to new circumstances, politicians face serious political risks from flip flopping. How do members of Congress balance these risks? Using an original data set of district economic conditions and opinion from 2007 to 2010 and sets of repeated roll call votes, I leverage the exogenous shock of the Great Recession to explain position change on three major economic policies. I find that position change occurs in response to the constituency on final passage votes, but that partisan pressures exert greater influence, especially on procedural votes. This novel test of responsiveness has implications for the nature of policy representation and the mechanisms behind aggregate responsiveness.
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Details
- Title
- Consistency versus Responsiveness
- Publication Details
- Political research quarterly, Vol.70(1), pp.3-18
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Sage
- Number of pages
- 16
- Grant note
- University of Colorado Department of Political Science University of Colorado Graduate School
- Copyright
- © 2017, Sage Publications
- Identifiers
- WOS:000394649500001; 99381805401206600
- Academic Unit
- Reubin O'D. Askew Department of Government ; College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Language
- English