Congressional Responsiveness to Constituency Change

This paper uses the natural experiment of redistricting to measure how much congressmen adjust their positions when the prevailing opinion in their districts changes. The evidence indicates an appreciable amount of responsiveness. Ideological responsiveness is higher among congressmen who win reelec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of political science 1985-05, Vol.29 (2), p.259-273
Main Authors: Glazer, Amihai, Robbins, Marc
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Change
Congress
CONGRESS (ALL NATIONS)
Congressional districts
Congressional voting
Conservatism
Constituency
Constituents
IDEOLOGY
Liberalism
Political parties
Politicians
Redistricting
RELATIONS AMONG GROUPS
Representation
Seniority
SURVEY DATA AND POLLING DATA
Theory
United States
Voting
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Summary:This paper uses the natural experiment of redistricting to measure how much congressmen adjust their positions when the prevailing opinion in their districts changes. The evidence indicates an appreciable amount of responsiveness. Ideological responsiveness is higher among congressmen who win reelection than among those not returned to office, and is greater among senior congressmen than among junior ones. Substantial differences appear on the group level, with Democrats following mostly liberal changes and Republicans following conservative ones.
ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.2307/2111166