Personal Roots of Representation

Personal Roots of Representation PDF Author: Barry C. Burden
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400866936
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Despite heightened partisanship in the U.S. Congress and constituencies split along ideological lines, congressional representatives frequently buck their parties and seldom do precisely what voters ask. In Personal Roots of Representation, Barry Burden challenges standard explanations of legislative preferences to emphasize the important role that personal influences play in representatives' voting behavior. This timely book is the first to examine the extent to which the very same values, experiences, and interests that shape congressional members as individuals and guide their own life choices similarly shape their policymaking decisions. Burden takes a close look at legislative decision making in the areas of tobacco regulation, vouchers and school choice, and religion and bioethics. He finds that personal factors become more significant when legislators are acting proactively rather than reactively, grappling with specific policy issues, and defending rather than challenging the status quo. Marshaling both qualitative and quantitative evidence, Burden reveals that the personal roots of representatives' actions can be as influential as the usual suspects of partisanship and constituency--and that personal factors quite often have the greatest impact when the policymaking stakes are at their highest. Personal Roots of Representation is a provocative book that raises pressing new questions about legislative discretion and the accountability of our elected officials.

Personal Roots of Representation

Personal Roots of Representation PDF Author: Barry C. Burden
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400866936
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
Despite heightened partisanship in the U.S. Congress and constituencies split along ideological lines, congressional representatives frequently buck their parties and seldom do precisely what voters ask. In Personal Roots of Representation, Barry Burden challenges standard explanations of legislative preferences to emphasize the important role that personal influences play in representatives' voting behavior. This timely book is the first to examine the extent to which the very same values, experiences, and interests that shape congressional members as individuals and guide their own life choices similarly shape their policymaking decisions. Burden takes a close look at legislative decision making in the areas of tobacco regulation, vouchers and school choice, and religion and bioethics. He finds that personal factors become more significant when legislators are acting proactively rather than reactively, grappling with specific policy issues, and defending rather than challenging the status quo. Marshaling both qualitative and quantitative evidence, Burden reveals that the personal roots of representatives' actions can be as influential as the usual suspects of partisanship and constituency--and that personal factors quite often have the greatest impact when the policymaking stakes are at their highest. Personal Roots of Representation is a provocative book that raises pressing new questions about legislative discretion and the accountability of our elected officials.

Home Field Advantage

Home Field Advantage PDF Author: Charles R Hunt
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047222042X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Although partisan polarization gets much of the attention in political science scholarship about Congress, members of Congress represent diverse communities around the country. Home Field Advantage demonstrates the importance of this understudied element of American congressional elections and representation in the modern era: the local, place-based roots that members of Congress have in their home districts. Charles Hunt argues that legislators’ local roots in their district have a significant and independent impact on their campaigns, election outcomes, and more broadly on the relationship between members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their constituents. Drawing on original data, his research reveals that there is considerable variation in election outcomes, performance relative to presidential candidates, campaign spending, and constituent communication styles that are not fully explained by partisanship, incumbency, or other well-established theories of American political representation. Rather, many of these differences are the result of the depth of a legislator’s local roots in their district that predate their time in Congress. Hunt lays out a detailed “Theory of Local Roots” and their influence in congressional representation, demonstrating this influence empirically using multiple original measures of local roots over a full cross- section of legislators and a significant period of time.

The Future of Political Science

The Future of Political Science PDF Author: Gary King
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135841837
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This book contains some of the newest, most exciting ideas now percolating among political scientists, from hallway conversations to conference room discussions. To spur future research, enrich classroom teaching, and direct non-specialist attention to cutting-edge ideas, a distinguished group of authors from various parts of this sprawling and pluralistic discipline has each contributed a brief essay about a single novel or insufficiently appreciated idea on some aspect of political science. The one hundred essays are concise, no more than a few pages apiece, and informal. While the contributions are highly diverse, readers can find unexpected connections across the volume, tracing echoes as well as diametrically opposed points of view. This book offers compelling points of departure for everyone who is concerned about political science -- whether as a scholar, teacher, student, or interested reader.

New Directions in Congressional Politics

New Directions in Congressional Politics PDF Author: Jamie L. Carson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136887466
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
As the U.S. Congress has steadily evolved, so too has our understanding of the institution. New Directions in Congressional Politics offers an accessible overview of the current developments in our understanding of America’s legislative branch. Jamie L. Carson helps students bridge the gap between roles, rules, and outcomes by focusing on four themes woven throughout: the importance of electoral considerations, legislators’ strategic behavior to accomplish objectives, the unique challenges of Congress as a bicameral institution, and the often-overlooked policy outputs of the institution. This book brings together leading scholars of Congress to provide a general overview of the entire field. Each chapter covers the cutting edge developments on its respective topic. As the political institution responsible for enacting laws, the American public regularly looks to the U.S. Congress to address the important issues of the day. The contributors in this volume help explain why staying atop the research trends help us better understand these issues.

Congress and Its Members

Congress and Its Members PDF Author: Roger H. Davidson
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 150636974X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description
The gold standard for Congress courses for over 30 years Congress and Its Members, Sixteenth Edition, by Roger H. Davidson, Walter J. Oleszek, Frances E. Lee, and Eric Schickler, offers readers current, comprehensive coverage of Congress and the legislative process by examining the tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and as a collection of politicians constantly seeking re-election. The Sixteenth Edition of this best-selling text considers the 2016 elections and discusses the agenda of the new Congress, White House–Capitol Hill relations, party and committee leadership changes, judicial appointments, and partisan polarization, as well as covering changes to budgeting, campaign finance, lobbying, public attitudes about Congress, reapportionment, rules, and procedures. Always balancing great scholarship with currency, the best-seller features lively case material along with relevant data, charts, exhibits, maps, and photos.

Legislative Style

Legislative Style PDF Author: William Bernhard
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022651028X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Legislative style and congressional careers -- Measuring legislative style (with Daniel Sewell) -- The styles -- Explaining freshman styles -- Transitions in style -- The electoral consequences of legislative style -- Styles, lawmaking, and legislative success -- Career advancement and legislative styles -- Legislative styles and evaluations of Congress

Black-Latino Relations in U.S. National Politics

Black-Latino Relations in U.S. National Politics PDF Author: Rodney E. Hero
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107030455
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Social science research has frequently found conflict between Latinos and African Americans in urban politics and governance, as well as in the groups' attitudes toward one another. Rodney E. Hero and Robert R. Preuhs analyze whether conflict between these two groups is also found in national politics. Based on extensive evidence on the activities of minority advocacy group in national politics and the behavior of minority members of Congress, the authors find the relationship between the groups is characterized mainly by non-conflict and a considerable degree of independence. The question of why there appears to be little minority intergroup conflict at the national level of government is also addressed. This is the first systematic study of Black-Latino intergroup relations at the national level of United States politics.

Congress and Its Members, Fourteenth Edition

Congress and Its Members, Fourteenth Edition PDF Author: Roger H. Davidson
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1452239959
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
Congress and Its Members is the gold standard for the Congress course. Over 13 editions, the book has offered comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Congress and the legislative process by looking at the tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and as a collection of re-election-minded politicians. The fourteenth edition accounts for the 2012 elections and includes discussion of the agenda of the new Congress, White House–Capitol Hill relations, party and committee leadership changes, judicial appointments, and partisan polarization, as well as covering changes to budgeting, campaign finance, lobbying, public attitudes about Congress, reapportionment, rules, and procedures. Always balancing great scholarship with currency, the book features lively case material along with relevant data, charts, exhibits, maps, and photos.

Sisters in the Statehouse

Sisters in the Statehouse PDF Author: Nadia E. Brown
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199352445
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Descriptive studies of women in office have well documented the ways in which the gender and race of legislators affects policy preferences. However, descriptive studies of female legislators tend to treat identity as constant over time and context and so fail to account for the substantive work of legislators. As Sisters in the Statehouse shows, it is not enough to disaggregate "women" from "Blacks." While scholars have long advanced the notion that African American women as a group exhibit specificities informed by the intersection of race and gender that provide them with a unique worldview, it is necessary to further explore differences among Black women. This book addresses this gap by utilizing humanistic inquiry to examine the connection between descriptive and substantive representation in the case of Black women legislators. This link hinges on how such legislators see the effects of their own race-gender identity on their legislative work. By combining humanistic and social science techniques, including feminist life histories, elite interviews, and participant observation in conjunction with legislative case studies and bill sponsorship data, Nadia E. Brown presents a fuller description of how identity informs Black women state legislators' descriptive and substantive representation. Linking personal narratives to political behavior, Brown elicits the feminist life histories of African American women legislators to understand how their experiences with racism and sexism have influenced their legislative decision-making and policy preferences. Sisters in the Statehouse is a groundbreaking inquiry into how an intersectional approach can enhance our understanding of political representation.

Politics of Empowerment

Politics of Empowerment PDF Author: David Pettinicchio
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503609774
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
“A really, really good book . . . both a specific history of [U.S.] disability policy as well as a broad story of the politics of social change.” —Jeremy R. Levine, American Journal of Sociology Despite the progress of decades-old disability rights policy, including the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, threats continue to undermine the wellbeing of this population. The United States is, thus, a policy innovator and laggard in this regard. In Politics of Empowerment, David Pettinicchio offers a historically grounded analysis of the singular case of U.S. disability policy, countering long-held views of progress that privilege public demand as its primary driver. By the 1970s, a group of legislators and bureaucrats came to act as “political entrepreneurs.” Motivated by personal and professional commitments, they were seen as experts leading a movement within the government. But as they faced obstacles to their legislative intentions, nascent disability advocacy and protest groups took the cause to the American people, forming the basis of the contemporary disability rights movement. Drawing on extensive archival material, Pettinicchio redefines the relationship between grassroots advocacy and institutional politics, revealing a cycle of progress and backlash embedded in the American political system. “A broad and ambitious study of the evolution of American disability policy and disability rights, incorporating changing policy approaches, governmental institutions, and social movement activities.” —Richard K. Scotch, Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Political Economy, University of Texas at Dallas “Excellent. . . . A must-read for those interested in social movements and citizen participation.” —Andrea Louise Campbell, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science, MIT “Compelling.” —David S. Meyer, University of California, Irvine