Legislative Publications

 

• Brian Frederick (2011). Gender Turnover and Roll Call Voting in the US Senate. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 32:3, 193-210.(abstract) (download)
• Frederick, Brian. (2010). Congressional Representation and Constituents: The Case for Increasing the U.S. House of Representatives. New York: Routledge Press. (abstract)
• Serra, George and Neil Pinney. (2004). Casework, Issues, and Voting in State Legislative Elections: A District Analysis. The Journal of Legislative Studies. 10: 32-46. (abstract); (full document)
• Pinney, Neil, George Serra, and Dalene Sprick. (2004). The Costs of Reform: Consequences of Limiting Terms of Service. Party Politics. 10: 67-82. (abstract); (full document)
• Headrick, Barbara, George Serra, and Jim Twombly. (2002). Enforcement and Oversight: Using Congressional Oversight to Shape OSHA Bureaucratic Behavior. American Politics Research. 30: 608-629. (abstract); (full document)
• Pinney, Neil and George Serra. (2002). A Voice for Black Interests: Congressional Black Caucus Cohesion and Bill Co-sponsorship. Congress & the Presidency. 29: 69-86. (abstract);
• Pinney, Neil and George Serra. (1999). The Congressional Black Caucus and Vote Cohesion: Placing the Caucus within House Voting Patterns. Political Research Quarterly. 52: 583-608. (abstract); (full document)

 

Congressional Representation and Constituents: The Case for Increasing the U.S. House of Representatives.

The U.S. House of Representatives has been frozen at 435 members for almost a century, and in that time the nation’s population has grown by more than 200 percent. With the number of citizens represented by each House member now dramatically larger, is a major consequence of this historical disparity a diminished quality of representation? Brian Frederick uses empirical data to scrutinize whether representation has been undermined by keeping a ceiling on the number of seats available in the House. He examines the influence of constituency size on several metrics of representation—including estimating the effects on electoral competition, policy responsiveness, and citizen contact with and approval of their representatives—and argues that now is the time for the House to be increased in order to better represent a rapidly growing country.

Gender Turnover and Roll Call Voting in the U.S. Senate

Most studies looking at the roll call voting behavior of female legislators have investigated this phenomenon at the state legislative level and for the US House. Very little research has looked at the impact of gender on the policy records of US Senators. With the number of female senators continuing to increase it is now possible to undertake such an analysis. This study examines the influence of gender in predicting the roll call voting behavior of US Senators over several recent Congresses. To unearth gender effects, it employs a longitudinal design based on turnover in the Senate, which holds constituency constant while allowing for gender and party to vary. The results indicate that male and female senators representing the same state compile very similar voting records on the basic left-right policy dimension. However, when votes on issues of concern to women are examined female senators tend to be more supportive than the male senators they replaced and male senators tend to be less supportive than the female senators they replaced.

Casework, Issues, and Voting in State Legislative Elections: A District Analysis.

Congressional research has addressed questions regarding the electoral consequences of service and policy responsiveness, as well as whether service responsiveness eliminates the need for policy responsiveness. However, less is known about the criteria by which constituents reward their state representatives. Part of the problem with resolving these questions at the state level has been the absence of data, since individual-level data on state legislative districts are hard to find and are unlikely to combine measures of both kinds of responsiveness. This study utilizes data gathered in a particular state legislator's district (both data on actual member-constituent contacts and survey data) to discern more explicitly whether ombudsman service and constituent issue proximity to the incumbent affects vote choice. Our findings support the proposition that like their counterparts in Congress, state representatives prosper when paying attention to both service and policy responsiveness; however, we find convincing evidence that casework enables state legislators to gain support from constituents who otherwise would not vote for them.  (full document)

The Costs of Reform: Consequences of Limiting Terms of Service.

The purpose of this research is to discern more explicitly how electoral reforms that limit terms of service impact intra-party competition and campaign expenditures in state legislative contests. Particularly, we are interested in whether term limits have differential effects across political parties, given the increasing number of open seats. We find, contrary to the conventional argument that term limits will invigorate competition, increasing the number of candidates does not translate into more competitive races. In fact, the implementation of term limits results in a decrease in the level of electoral competition in open races, particularly for Democratic candidates. Moreover, this decrease in electoral competition is typically related to a dramatic increase in campaign expenditures in districts with open races.  (full document)

Enforcement and Oversight: Using Congressional Oversight to Shape OSHA Bureaucratic Behavior

This research is an extension of the body of work that seeks to explain variation in levels of OSHA enforcement as a function of national and local variation in the agency's political environment. Although we examine a number of relationships, the new question posed here is whether legislative oversight affects the behavior of OSHA compliance officers at the district-level. OSHA is an interesting test case of the impact of oversight on bureaucratic output because of the way policy is implemented - enforcement takes place in the field by street - level bureaucrats, far removed from the federal office. Using data gathered at the congressional district-level (1983-1995), results suggest that variation within OSHA's enforcement behavior is influenced by oversight committee assignment, overall oversight committee's and appropriations subcommittee's attitudes toward labor, and the district representative's disposition toward labor issues. We conclude that legislative oversight indeed imposes limitations on compliance officers' district-level enforcement actions. (full document)

A Voice for Black Interests: Congressional Black Caucus Cohesion and Bill Cosponsorship

This study enhances our understanding of the vexing dilemma (i.e., the cross pressures emanating from individual goals and collective aspirations) confronting black legislators. Extant research based on roll call votes or interest group scores that are based on roll call votes is limited in what it can tell us about African-American representation in Congress. Roll call data are readily available and easily analyzed but are not accurate measures of members' overall legislative behavior because of the censored sample problem. This study attempts to overcome this concern by examining African-American representatives' cosponsorship of legislation. Bill cosponsorship is a good indicator of a representative's intensity of commitment to constituent interests. We examine public bills cosponsored by African-American representatives from 1971 through 1993. The analysis finds that the cohesiveness of the CBC transcends policy arenas notwithstanding higher rates of cosponsorship on social issues and the number of bills cosponsored by the CBC is noticeably higher after 1982. In addition, analysis suggests that CBC members, just as all members of Congress, respond to the structure that governs the House and political forces that shape their electoral fortunes.

The Congressional Black Caucus and Vote Cohesion: Placing the Caucus Within House Voting Patterns

Roll-call votes of African American representatives are explored to discern more explicitly the ideological cohesiveness of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and factors that affect vote choice. We use adjusted Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) scores. The adjustment corrects for changes in the ADA ’s scale from year to year. The analysis is carried out focusing on CBC coherence with respect to ideological voting and potential influences on Caucus unity. We pool the CBC data from the period under investigation (1971-1996) to address the impact of variables identified as affecting roll call voting. The findings suggest that while there is considerably more diversity within the CBC than we sometimes imagine, African American representatives are more cohesive with the Black Caucus on roll-call behavior than they are with either their regional or state party delegations. In addition, analyses, suggest that seniority, correspondence between the president’s party and the CBC, presidential policy preferences, percent black voters in the district, and electoral margin of victory in the district may help explain variation in Caucus unity. Finally, we conclude high vote cohesion is meaningful for the CBC and the representation of black interests in Congress.  (full document)

Last Modified: October 14, 2011