February 9, 2005

• Who’s here?

• JFK in Nashville in 1963

• Representation Readings

• Congress as an institution for Representation– Mayhew– Fenno– Poole/Rosenthal

What is Representation?

Conceptions of Representation

Policy/Issue Collective

Service/Allocational

Symbolic/Descriptive

Yes No

High

Low

District-Based Conception

Pol

icy

Con

tent

Policy/Issues

• Style– Delegate: follow the mandate of constituents– Trustee: exercise independent judgment– “Politico”: switches roles or may engage be a

delegate and trustee at same time

• Focus– The constituency that is being represented

Policy/Issue Studies

• Wahlke et al (1952): divide members into trustee, delegate, and “politico”

• Miller & Stokes (1958): attempt to link constituent opinions to legislator’s behavior– Social Welfare: Vote by Party– Civil Rights: Delegate Role– Foreign Affairs: Deference to Executive

• Fenno (1977): “home style”; members convince constituents that they represent them regardless of the extent of agreement

Policy/Issue Studies Continued

• Browne (1995): constituents influence vote on agricultural legislation

• Hall (1987, 1996): district influences legislator membership on committees

“Perceptions of the Constituency”Richard F. Fenno, Jr.

Concentric Constituencies

• Geographic

• Reelection

• Primary

• Personal

Geographical Constituency

• “The District”– Physical: specified by boundaries– Internal Demographic and Political Variables:

socioeconomic status, ethnicity, ideology, partisanship, religion, diversity, etc.

• Heterogeneity v. Homogeneity: variable that seems to determine members’ perceptions of their districts

Reelection Constituency

• “The Supporters”– Who she thinks will vote for her– Reference points in determining reelection

constituency1. Cross-Sectional

2. Longitudinal

– Partisans, Cross-Party, Least-Likely– “Last Time” v. “This Time”– Challenger has greatest potential for altering the

size and composition of reelection constituency– Issues can alter reelection constituency

Primary Constituency

• “The Strongest Supporters”– Weak supporters: follow routines (straight

party) or are temporary (waiting for alternative)– Strong supporters: more political activity, will

not support any challenger– Difficult to delineate primary constituency in

some cases, members who recently emerged from a primary election can determine their primary constituency

Personal Constituency

• “The Intimates”– Few individuals: closest advisors and

confidants, sometimes a spouse (“Kitchen Cabinet”)

– Usually the people who have been by an official since their first race

– Thought of as “friends”

“The Electoral Connection and Congress”David R. Mayhew

Proximate Goal

• Reelection– Universal– Cannot achieve other goals if member is not

reelected– “All members of Congress have a primary

interest in getting re-elected. Some members have no other interest.”

Activities Useful for Reelection

• Advertising– visiting constituency, non-political speeches to

home audiences, letters of condolence and congratulation, newsletters, opinion editorials

– Franking Privilege

Activities Useful for Reelection

• Credit Claiming: generating belief that the legislator is personally responsible for a government change

– Particularized Benefits1. Given to specific individual or group that allows

the single legislator to be recognized

2. Done in an ad hoc fashion

Activities Useful for Reelection

• Position-taking: “public enunciation of a judgmental statement on anything likely to be of interest to political actors”– roll call vote, floor addresses, speeches,

television appearances, letters, press releases, interviews, etc.

Institution Meets Electoral Needs

• Benefits Associated with the Office– Staff, casework capabilities, franking privilege– Seniority

• Committee Structure– Platform for position-taking, particularized benefits,

allows division of labor among members

• Parties– Majority party could cut off particularized benefits from

minority party, but this has not happened

“Member Goals”Richard F. Fenno, Jr.

Basic Goals of a Legislator

1. Reelection

2. Influence within the House

3. Good Public Policy

X. (career beyond house, private gain)

• Committee membership reflects the goal of a legislators

Appropriations, Ways & Means

• “Power,” “Prestige,” “Importance”

• Reflects desire to have influence within the House

Interior, Post Office

• “District Interests,” “Projects,” “Political Help”

• Reflects goal of reelection by helping constituents

Education, Labor, Foreign Affairs

• “Interesting,” “Exciting,” “Controversial,” “Important”

• Reflects goal of making good public policy

Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call

VotingKeith T. Poole, Howard Rosenthal et al

LIBERAL CONSERVATIVE

Motivation of Legislator

• Ideology– Liberal to Conservative Spectrum– Constraint Hypothesis: issues tend to be

mapped onto a fixed ordering or placement of legislators

– Voting tends to be highly consistent over a member’s time in office.

– History: http://www.voteview.com/h461051.htm

Service/Allocational

• Obtaining projects that help the district (“pork) or interceding in the bureacracy (“cutting through red tape)

• Motives– Sense of duty– Grateful constituents = Reelection

• Studies on impact of pork for reelection mixed

• Issues: necessary for constituents to have help?, votes for district at expense of nation?

Symbolic/Descriptive

• Legislator as “symbol” that represents public

• Representation may extend beyond geographic boundaries of the district– Individual Examples: female legislator as

advocate for women nationally, minority legislator as advocate for minorities nationally

– Group Example: legislative caucuses

Collective

• Represent constituents with a more collective view– political parties– Congress as representative of the nation as a

whole

• May lead to conflict with district constituents

The Great Divide

• Trustee Representation (Burkean)

• Delegate Representation

Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process

Walter J. Oleszek

The Constitutional Context

Limited Government

Separation of Powers

Checks and Balances

Federalism

Functions of Rules and Procedures

• Stability (and predictability)• Legitimacy• Division of Labor• Protection of Minority Rights• Conflict Resolution• Distribution of Power

Rules and Policy Making in Congress

• Procedure and Policy

Procedures affect outcomes.Procedural moves express policy decisions.The nature of policy determines the use of procedure.Procedural expertise helps members impact policy.

• Conventional versus Unconventional Lawmaking

“I’m just a bill…”

• Precedents and Folkways

Precedents: “…the accumulated past decisions on matters of procedure…”

Folkways: “…unwritten norms of behavior that members are expected to observe.”

Congressional Decision Making• Decentralized Power Structure

Political and structural realitiesMore than 200 committees and subcommitteesParties can provide cohesion.

• Multiple Decision Points

• Bargaining and Coalition Building

LogrollingCompromiseNonlegislative Favors

• The Congressional Cycle

Two-Year Deadline

House versus Senate

• The Big Three

Size of BodySize of DistrictLength of Term

• Complexity of Rules

House

More rules and precedent constrict members

“Subordination of the individual

to the necessities of the whole…”

Key members impact legislation.

Majority rule

Senate

“…Rules maximize freedom of expression...”

“…More personal and individualistic

All Senators participate actively.

Often slower

Supermajoritarian

House versus Senate continued

• Policy Incubation

• Specialists versus Generalists

• Distribution of Power

More even in Senate

• Similarities

Equal powerLawmaking, oversight and representationHeavy workloadsDecentralized committee and party structuresDependence on staff

Pressures on Members

• President & Executive Branch

• The Fourth Estate

• Constituent Pressures

• Washington Lobbyists

Credits• Adrian Rodriguez & Alex Theodoridis• Presentation based on: Weisberg, Herbert F., Eric S. Heberlig and

Lisa M. Campoli, Classics in Congressional Politics “What is Representation?”, Weisberg et al eds. (Glenview: Longman 1999) pp. 68-82.

• Image on Cover from: The Architect of the Capitol http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/c_wf_1.cfm Concepts of Representation slide based on: Table 5.1 in Weisberg et al, p. 74.

• Presentation based on: Fenno, Jr., Richard F., Home Style: House Members in their Districts (Glenview: Little, Brown & Company 1978), “Perceptions of the Constituency”, pp. 1-30.

• Image on Cover from: US Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/images/water_home.jpg