Congressional Representation by Petition: Assessing the Voices of the Voteless in a Comprehensive New Database, 1789–1949

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggie Blackhawk ◽  
Daniel Carpenter ◽  
Tobias Resch ◽  
Benjamin Schneer
Keyword(s):  
Congressional Representation

Representation in the One-Party South

2018 ◽  
pp. 142-171
Author(s):  
Devin Caughey
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Political System ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Ideological Bias ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
Southern Conservatism ◽  
The One ◽  
Over Time

This chapter conducts a systematic statistical analysis of congressional representation in the one-party South. Overall, the evidence presented in the previous chapters suggests a political system that was responsive not to a narrow elite only, but to a broad swath of the white public. As such, this chapter examines the responsiveness of Southern members of Congress (MCs) to their white constituents, both cross-sectionally and over time, and compares them to non-Southern MCs. It also shows that Southern MCs responded to the income of the median voter, and examines their ideological bias relative to non-Southern MCs. The chapter then highlights the ways that congressional representation did differ across regions, and discusses how these findings help resolve the “puzzle” of Southern conservatism. In marked contrast to the conventional wisdom, this chapter not only shows that Southern MCs were responsive to their white constituents, but also finds little indication that congressional responsiveness was weaker in the one-party South than in the two-party North, though the mechanisms and character of responsiveness did differ between regions.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Devin Caughey
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Regime ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Politics ◽  
The Core ◽  
Racial Issues ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
The One ◽  
Partisan Competition ◽  
The New Deal

This introductory chapter lays down the groundwork for the argument that the white polyarchy model provides the best account of congressional representation in the one-party South. This framework characterizes the South as an exclusionary one-party enclave, which departed from normal democratic politics in three major respects: its exclusion of many citizens from the franchise, its lack of partisan competition, and its embeddedness within a national democratic regime. Each of these features had important implications for Southern politics. The argument here is that white polyarchy provides the best description of congressional politics in the South, but this argument also rests on a number of empirical premises. To that end, the chapter outlines a focus on the issues of regulation, redistribution, and social welfare at the core of the New Deal agenda, largely bracketing explicitly racial issues except insofar as they intersected with economic policymaking. Finally, it outlines the major implications set out by this argument for our understanding of the character and persistence of the South's exclusionary one-party enclaves.

Striking a Balance between Contradictory Roles: The Overlapping Role Perceptions of the Deputies in China’s Local People’s Congresses

Modern China ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongya Huang ◽  
Quanling He
Keyword(s):  
National Survey ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Social Background ◽  
County Level ◽  
Role Perceptions ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
State Agents ◽  
Using Data

Recent studies have begun to pay increasing attention to congressional representation in China. Based on selected cases or surveys of one province or another, such studies seek to demonstrate that the deputies of local people’s congresses (LPCs) increasingly identify themselves as representatives of citizens rather than as state agents. This article, using data from a national survey conducted in 2014, explores how deputies at the county level perceive their role and what accounts for their different role perceptions. It argues that LPC deputies as a whole perceive that they have overlapping roles that could be defined as neither state agents nor citizen representatives. Rather, they try to strike a balance between seemingly contradictory roles. Deputies’ social background and political attitudes have a significant effect on their role perceptions while electoral incentives make little difference. A sense of congressional representation develops when deputies gradually come to grips with the tension between the different roles and choose to give up roles other than citizen representatives.

The “PERFECT” Call: Congressional Representation by Tweet in the Midst of the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110419
Author(s):  
Seth C. McKee ◽  
Heather K. Evans ◽  
Jennifer Hayes Clark
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Phone Call ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
The Media

In this article we examine every tweet congresspersons sent from the time the media broke the news of President Trump’s fateful July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky up to a week after House Speaker Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry. Our aim is to understand the type of rhetoric Members of Congress (MCs) engaged in with respect to what we call the Ukraine Whistleblower Scandal (UWS). It is evident from our analysis that Democrats were more likely to sound off on the UWS, which comports with the fact that it was a Republican President who got into trouble. Further, there are characteristics of MCs that make them more likely to frame and discuss the UWS in certain ways, like House Representatives holding law degrees or serving on one of the House committees investigating the UWS. Finally, in this age of hyper-polarized parties, party affiliation was consistently the most important factor shaping representatives’ Twitter statements on the UWS. In historical perspective, the overriding importance of party affiliation is lamentable since the charges against President Trump were solemn and serious.

scholarly journals #Selfie: Instagram and the United States Congress

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630511881337 ◽  
Author(s):  
David O’Connell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Congress ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Personal Accounts

This article is based on a content analysis of the 17,811 Instagram posts made by all 534 members of the United States Congress who were seated for the duration of the first 6 months of the 115th session. I find that women are significantly more likely than men to have an Instagram account. Senators and women post significantly more times to their accounts. And a member’s personal characteristics, such as their chamber, party, and age, had significant effects on the type of content posted to Instagram. I conclude that members of Congress use Instagram similarly to how they use other social media platforms, that parties in and out of power use Instagram in substantively different ways, and that the more personal accounts of younger members suggest future changes in Congressional representation.

The Inexact Science of Congressional Redistricting

1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 431-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
Justice Department ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
The U.S

Incumbent politicians are understandably nervous when electoral rules are altered. In the case of the U.S. House of Representatives, members are well aware that a change in decade is accompanied by the near certainty that their own district lines will be redrawn. These incumbents know that changes resulting from the reallocation of congressional seats among states and the shift of population within states could have a shattering effect on their careers: their districts could be eliminated; they could be thrown into a district with another House incumbent; their district lines could be radically redrawn, destroying their traditional bases of support.Incumbents' unease is transformed into serious worry by one additional fact:de jurecontrol of redistricting is out of their hands. State legislatures and governors, the Justice Department (for those states falling under the Voting Rights Act) and ultimately the courts determine the fate of incumbents.Of course, the ostensible purpose of congressional redistricting in accordance with the decennial census is to ensure that congressional representation reflects the changes in the geographical distribution of the nation's population and thus to ensure that the members of the House from each state represent approximately the same number of citizens. Putting that principle into practice creates opportunities for the parties to increase their strength in the House but it also causes tremendous uncertainty among incumbents.Looking at political science research on the effects of redistricting on the fortunes of incumbents, one might wonder why they worry. In 1972 I reported findings of my study on incumbents who lost their elections after redistricting.

Examining the Impact of Black Political Representation on White Racial Attitudes in Majority Black Congressional Districts

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 611-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmitt Y. Riley ◽  
Clarissa Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Racial Attitudes ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Black Person ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
White Racial Attitudes ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the impact of Black congressional representation on the racial attitudes of Whites. Utilizing data from the 2010 and 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey, we test whether Black political representation impacts Whites’ levels of racial resentment. The informational theory suggests Whites gain critical information as a result of their experience living under Black political leadership and that their experience should positively impact how they feel about Blacks once Whites see that their lives are not dramatically changed as a result of Black political representation. The findings of this article challenge the notion that having a Black political representative will be associated with a decrease in negative racial attitudes among Whites. Using racial resentment to measure White racial attitudes, we find that living under a Black congressional representative only has a marginal effect on racial attitudes. In contrast to the informational hypothesis, we find that Whites who reside in congressional districts represented by a Black person are not less racially resentful than Whites who live in districts that are not represented by a Black person.

Authoritarian Parochialism: Local Congressional Representation in China

2014 ◽  
Vol 218 ◽  
pp. 311-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Manion
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Symbolic Representation ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Pork Barrel ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Congressional Representation ◽  
Regime Types ◽  
Legislative Activities

AbstractThis article draws on evidence from loosely structured interviews and data from original surveys of 5,130 delegates in township, county and municipal congresses to argue that congressional representation unfolds as authoritarian parochialism in China. It makes three new arguments. First, popularly elected local congresses that once only mechanically stood in for the Chinese mass public, through demographically descriptive and politically symbolic representation, now work as substantively representative institutions. Chinese local congressmen and women view themselves and act as “delegates,” not Burkean trustees or Leninist party agents. Second, this congressional representation is not commonly expressed in the quintessentially legislative activities familiar in other regime types. Rather, it is an extra-legislative variant of pork-barrel politics: parochial activity by delegates to deliver targeted public goods to the geographic constituency. Third, this authoritarian parochialism is due to institutional arrangements and regime priorities, some common to single-party dictatorships and some distinct to Chinese authoritarianism.

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