Author : Brian Frederick
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 169 pages
File Size : 12,62 MB
Release : 2010
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0415873452
Uses empirical data to scrutinize whether representation has been diminished by keeping a ceiling on the number of seats available in the House and argues that it is the time for the House to be increased in order to better represent a rapidly growing country.
Author : Warren E. Miller
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 17,74 MB
Release : 1993-08-01
Category :
ISBN : 9780829036916
Author : Glen Krutz
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 32,17 MB
Release : 2023-05-12
Category :
ISBN : 9781738998470
Black & white print. American Government 3e aligns with the topics and objectives of many government courses. Faculty involved in the project have endeavored to make government workings, issues, debates, and impacts meaningful and memorable to students while maintaining the conceptual coverage and rigor inherent in the subject. With this objective in mind, the content of this textbook has been developed and arranged to provide a logical progression from the fundamental principles of institutional design at the founding, to avenues of political participation, to thorough coverage of the political structures that constitute American government. The book builds upon what students have already learned and emphasizes connections between topics as well as between theory and applications. The goal of each section is to enable students not just to recognize concepts, but to work with them in ways that will be useful in later courses, future careers, and as engaged citizens. In order to help students understand the ways that government, society, and individuals interconnect, the revision includes more examples and details regarding the lived experiences of diverse groups and communities within the United States. The authors and reviewers sought to strike a balance between confronting the negative and harmful elements of American government, history, and current events, while demonstrating progress in overcoming them. In doing so, the approach seeks to provide instructors with ample opportunities to open discussions, extend and update concepts, and drive deeper engagement.
Author : Andrew Rehfeld
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 42,33 MB
Release : 2005-06-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1139446487
In virtually every democratic nation in the world, political representation is defined by where citizens live. In the United States, for example, Congressional Districts are drawn every 10 years as lines on a map. Why do democratic governments define political representation this way? Are territorial electoral constituencies commensurate with basic principles of democratic legitimacy? And why might our commitments to these principles lead us to endorse a radical alternative: randomly assigning citizens to permanent, single-member electoral constituencies that each looks like the nation they collectively represent? Using the case of the founding period of the United States as an illustration, and drawing from classic sources in Western political theory, this book describes the conceptual, historical, and normative features of the electoral constituency. As an institution conceptually separate from the casting of votes, the electoral constituency is little studied. Its historical origins are often incorrectly described. And as a normative matter, the constituency is almost completely ignored. Raising these conceptual, historical and normative issues, the argument culminates with a novel thought experiment of imagining how politics might change under randomized, permanent, national electoral constituencies. By focusing on how citizens are formally defined for the purpose of political representation, The Concept of Constituency thus offers a novel approach to the central problems of political representation, democratic legitimacy, and institutional design.
Author : Justin Grimmer
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 16,64 MB
Release : 2013-12-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 110747051X
This book demonstrates the consequences of legislators' strategic communication for representation in American politics. Representational Style in Congress shows how legislators present their work to cultivate constituent support. Using a massive new data set of texts from legislators and new statistical techniques to analyze the texts, this book provides comprehensive measures of what legislators say to constituents and explains why legislators adopt these styles. Using the new measures, Justin Grimmer shows how legislators affect how constituents evaluate their representatives and the consequences of strategic statements for political discourse. The introduction of new statistical techniques for political texts allows a more comprehensive and systematic analysis of what legislators say and why it matters than was previously possible. Using these new techniques, the book makes the compelling case that to understand political representation, we must understand what legislators say to constituents.
Author : Christian R. Grose
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 49,30 MB
Release : 2011-01-31
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1139497367
The symbolic importance of Barack Obama's election is without question. But beyond symbolism, does the election of African-American politicians matter? Grose argues that it does and presents a unified theory of representation. Electing African-American legislators yields more federal dollars and congressional attention directed toward African-American voters. However, race and affirmative action gerrymandering have no impact on public policy passed in Congress. Grose is the first to examine a natural experiment and exceptional moment in history in which black legislators – especially in the U.S. South – represented districts with a majority of white constituents. This is the first systematic examination of the effect of a legislator's race above and beyond the effect of constituency racial characteristics. Grose offers policy prescriptions, including the suggestion that voting rights advocates, the courts, and redistricters draw 'black decisive districts', electorally competitive districts that are likely to elect African Americans.
Author : Barry C. Burden
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 50,6 MB
Release : 2015-02-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1400866936
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.
Author : Richard F. Fenno
Publisher : Addison-Wesley Longman
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 46,51 MB
Release : 2003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN :
"Home Style: House Members in Their Districts, the landmark study of eighteen representatives of Congress in their districts, by Richard F. Fenno, Jr., won the 1979 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award and the 1980 D. B. Hardeman prize. The text presents a coherent picture of what elected house members see when they view their constituencies, and how these perceptions affect their political behavior. During nearly eight years of research the author accompanied eighteen representatives of diverse backgrounds in their districts for a unique "over-the-shoulder" perspective on congressional home style. Professor Fenno's observational approach in enlivened with many examples and lends itself to a readable analysis." -- Publisher's description
Author : Kristina C. Miler
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 43,3 MB
Release : 2018-09-20
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1108473504
The poor are grossly underrepresented in Congress both overall and by individual legislators, even those who represent high-poverty districts.
Author : Richard F. Fenno
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 29,41 MB
Release : 2011-04-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0226241327
Thirty years ago there were nine African Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Today there are four times that number. In Going Home, the dean of congressional studies, Richard F. Fenno, explores what representation has meant—and means today—to black voters and to the politicians they have elected to office. Fenno follows the careers of four black representatives—Louis Stokes, Barbara Jordan, Chaka Fattah, and Stephanie Tubbs Jones—from their home districts to the halls of the Capitol. He finds that while these politicians had different visions of how they should represent their districts (in part based on their individual preferences, and in part based on the history of black politics in America), they shared crucial organizational and symbolic connections to their constituents. These connections, which draw on a sense of "linked fates," are ones that only black representatives can provide to black constituents. His detailed portraits and incisive analyses will be important for anyone interested in the workings of Congress or in black politics.
