scholarly journals Congressional Decision Making and the Separation of Powers

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Decision Context ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Strategic Model

To what extent does the separation of powers affect congressional roll call voting behavior? To answer this question, I offer a strategic model of congressional decision making that asserts members of Congress pursue public policy goals when casting roll call votes. From the equilibrium predictions of a formal model, I generate testable hypotheses by computing the expected net amount of sophisticated (nonsincere) congressional behavior given changes in decision context. I test the predictions of the theoretical model with data from all civil rights roll call votes from the 83d to the 102d Congress. The results demonstrate that both the other legislative chamber and the Supreme Court profoundly constrain House members and senators when casting roll call votes. This is strong evidence of the importance of policy outcomes to members of Congress when voting on the floor.

The Linkage between Constituency Attitudes and Congressional Voting Behavior: A Causal Model

1966 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Cnudde ◽  
Donald J. McCrone
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Congressional Voting ◽  
Theoretical Question ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Policy Agreement

Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes' publication in 1963 of a preliminary report on the Survey Research Center's representation study is an important landmark in the development of empirical political theory. That report addressed itself to the crucial theoretical question of the linkage between mass political opinions and governmental policy-making. More specifically, the report found considerable policy agreement between Congressional roll call votes and the attitudes of the individual Congressman's constituency. This policy agreement was then interpreted through several causal paths and the Congressman's perception of his constituency's attitudes was found to be the main path by which the local district ultimately influenced Congressional outputs.The main body of the report dealt with the broad civil rights issue dimension, and, by specifying the perceptual path by which constituency influence is brought to bear, documented the effect of political issues despite the generally low level of political information held at the mass level. Thus, the Congressmen, through their broad cognitive evaluations, were aware of how far they could proceed in determining their civil rights roll call votes on the basis of their own attitudes before risking the displeasure of their constituents.Beyond such major substantive contributions the representation study introduced to political science a variance-apportioning technique similar to that developed by Sewall Wright, in 1921. Through this variance-apportioning technique, the importance of the perceptual link was isolated and evaluated. This study, then, symbolizes the growing recognition in political science of the importance of more sophisticated methodological tools in the process of theory building.

Explaining Party Cohesion in Congress: The Case of Shared Policy Attitudes

1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 1156-1171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Norpoth
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Legislative Voting ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Party Cohesion ◽  
Voting Decisions ◽  
Party Voting

Partisanship has often been noted as one of the most conspicuous factors in legislative voting in the U.S. Congress. This paper attempts to trace party voting to shared policy goals. After the mean attitudes of congressmen belonging to the same party were ascertained for a number of policy domains, the effect of mean party attitudes on roll-call voting was estimated by regression analysis, taking into account the deviation of individual congressmen from their respective mean party attitudes. The results demonstrate that in all three policy domains examined, i.e., social welfare, civil rights, and foreign policy, shared party attitudes leave a strong imprint on individual roll-call decisions. The voting decisions of congressmen, in fact, are found to owe more to the shared party attitudes than to their own individual attitudes. The paper also explores the communication process through which shared policy attitudes are translated within Congress into partisan roll-call votes and points to a way of reconciling the “predispositional” and the “interactional” approach to legislative decision making.

Military Experience and Elite Decision-Making: Self-Selection, Socialization, and the Vietnam Draft Lottery

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle L Lupton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Military Experience ◽  
Self Selection ◽  
Draft Lottery ◽  
Vietnam Draft ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Scholars across international relations (IR) debate the role military experience plays in elite decision-making. I argue there are two critical problems with this debate. First, it fails to adequately consider the underlying mechanisms linking military service to elite policy preferences. Second, it narrowly focuses on the use of force and largely ignores other ways in which military experience may shape elite behavior. I employ vulnerability to the Vietnam draft lottery to disentangle the impact of two key mechanisms linking military service to elite preferences: self-selection and socialization. I compare the foreign and defense policy roll call votes of Members of Congress (MCs) in the House of Representatives across the 94th–113th Congresses who were eligible for the draft and served in the military to those who were eligible for the draft but did not serve. I find significant differences in the roll call voting behavior between these groups, particularly on issues associated with arming and defense budget restrictions, as well as broader oversight of the military. These effects are heightened for MCs who served on active duty, in the military longer, and in combat, providing strong support for socialization effects. My study carries implications for civil–military relations, elite decision-making, and the study of leaders in IR.

Mobilization of Liberal Strength in the House, 1955–1970: The Democratic Study Group

1974 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 667-681
Author(s):  
Arthur G. Stevens ◽  
Arthur H. Miller ◽  
Thomas E. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Communication Network ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Longitudinal Patterns ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
Democrats And Republicans

In 1959 a number of progressive Democratic congressmen organized the Democratic Study Group (DSG) as a vehicle for countering certain conservative biases then present in the decision-making process in the House of Representatives. This paper presents brief descriptions of the difficulties faced by these congressmen in their efforts to pass more “liberal” legislation and of the organization and activities of the DSG. The analytical focus is on an assessment of DSG success in developing an effective communication network as a means of achieving its policy goals. The central hypothesis is that this communication network has had an impact on the voting behavior of DSG members. Roll-call data from the 84th through the 91st Congress are examined to ascertain whether longitudinal patterns in the voting of DSG members, non-southern non-DSG Democrats, southern Democrats, and Republicans tend to confirm or deny this hypothesis.

Economic Voting under Coalition Governments: Evidence from Germany

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Debus ◽  
Mary Stegmaier ◽  
Jale Tosun
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Economic Voting ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Coalition Politics ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
German Parliament ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Impact

This article analyzes the impact of economic voting in federal elections for the German parliament. It combines theories of coalition politics and cabinet decision making—like prime ministerial government, collective cabinet decision making and ministerial discretion—with theoretical approaches on voting behavior to test which cabinet actor voters reward for improved economic conditions. The empirical results, which are based on data from German national election studies from 1987–2009, show that the party of the chancellor (and, thus, the strongest coalition party) benefits most from a positive evaluation of economic policy outcomes. There is, however, no consistent empirical evidence that the coalition parties collectively benefit from perceived positive economic performance. Therefore the findings demonstrate that economic voting occurs in German parliamentary elections, but is targeted specifically toward the chancellor's party.

Maximizing Utility vis-à-vis Developing Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Blodgett Bermeo
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Government ◽  
Development Outcomes

This chapter develops a formal model of targeted development. It starts from the assumption that governments in industrialized states seek to maximize their own utility in interactions with developing countries. Development concerns compete with other policy goals for scarce government resources. The level of development resources an industrialized country government targets to a particular developing country depends on the weight the government places on development in that country as well as the efficiency of the country in turning resources into development outcomes that the industrialized state values. One of the key insights of the model is that, as governments work to maximize the utility gained per dollar (or euro, yen, etc.) spent, development motives will influence policy in multiple issue areas. The chapter also draws out implications of the theory for each of the issue areas examined in the empirical chapters.

scholarly journals Chameleonic knowledge: a study of ex ante analysis in large infrastructure policy processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Dorren ◽  
Wouter Van Dooren
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Knowledge Use ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
Infrastructure Policy ◽  
Decision Outcomes ◽  
Ex Ante

AbstractUsing ex ante analysis to predict policy outcomes is common practice in the world of infrastructure planning. However, accounts of its uses and merits vary widely. Advisory agencies and government think tanks advocate this practice to prevent cost overruns, short-term decision-making and suboptimal choices. Academic studies on knowledge use, on the other hand, are critical of how knowledge can be used in decision making. Research has found that analyses often have no impact at all on decision outcomes or are mainly conducted to provide decision makers with the confidence to decide rather than with objective facts. In this paper, we use an ethnographic research design to understand how it is possible that the use of ex ante analysis can be depicted in such contradictory ways. We suggest that the substantive content of ex ante analysis plays a limited role in understanding its depictions and uses. Instead, it is the process of conducting an ex ante analysis itself that unfolds in such a manner that the analysis can be interpreted and used in many different and seemingly contradictory ways. In policy processes, ex ante analysis is like a chameleon, figuratively changing its appearance based on its environment.

Public Awareness and the Behavior of Unpopular Courts

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jay N. Krehbiel
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
Institutional Stakeholders

Abstract Scholars have long debated the positive and negative consequences of an aware public for the quality of governance in modern liberal democracies. This article extends this debate to the context of constitutional review by exploring how public awareness can limit the effective exercise of review by courts lacking strong public support. Incorporating aspects of both the legitimacy and separation of powers theories on judicial power, the author argues that public awareness weakens the efficacy of such unpopular courts by creating an electoral incentive for governments to defy adverse rulings, even when doing so may lead to punishment from other institutional stakeholders. The article develops a simple formal model that identifies how and under what conditions public awareness can influence an unpopular court's decision making. An analysis of rulings issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union finds support for the model's empirical implications.

Dynamic Decision Making System for Public Transport Routes

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Spichkova ◽  
Margaret Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information System ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Dynamic Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Decision Making System ◽  
Green Software

This paper presents a formal model of a decision making system for public transport routes. The approach focuses on (1) environmental and societal sustainability aspects of green software engineering, (2) spatial planning and optimisation for smarter sustainable cities, and (3) user satisfaction with this information system for the various contexts of passenger, driver and overall system view.

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