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February 9, 2005
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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
District-Based Conception
Policy Content
Yes
High
Policy/Issue
Low
Service/
Allocational
No
Collective
Symbolic/
Descriptive
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
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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
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“The Supporters”
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Who she thinks will vote for her
Reference points in determining reelection
constituency
1. Cross-Sectional
2. Longitudinal
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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
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Credit Claiming: generating belief that
the legislator is personally responsible
for a government change
– Particularized Benefits
1. 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 PoliticalEconomic History of Roll Call
Voting
Keith 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
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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
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Decentralized Power Structure
Political and structural realities
More than 200 committees and subcommittees
Parties can provide cohesion.
• Multiple Decision Points
• Bargaining and Coalition Building
Logrolling
Compromise
Nonlegislative Favors
• The Congressional Cycle
Two-Year Deadline
House versus Senate
• The Big Three
Size of Body
Size of District
Length of Term
• Complexity of Rules
House
Senate
More rules and precedent constrict members
“…Rules maximize freedom of expression...”
“Subordination of the individual
to the necessities of the whole…”
“…More personal and individualistic
All Senators participate actively.
Key members impact legislation.
Often slower
Majority rule
Supermajoritarian
House versus Senate continued
• Policy Incubation
• Specialists versus Generalists
• Distribution of Power
More even in Senate
• Similarities
Equal power
Lawmaking, oversight and representation
Heavy workloads
Decentralized committee and party structures
Dependence 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