Making Washington Work: Legislative Entrepreneurship and the Personal Vote from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression

Abstract

Studies of bill sponsorship in the modern Congress highlight the effects of constituency characteristics, seniority, and committee membership. These studies, however, are limited in their ability to assess the effects of institutions. We provide the first systematic study of bill sponsorship in the premodern House of Representatives. In doing so, we take advantage of this period's expansive legislative agenda and variation in electoral system rules. Using matching and event count models, we estimate the effects of institutions, electoral competition, and members' institutional positions and political experiences on their sponsorship of different types of bills. We find that two reforms-the Australian ballot and nominating primary-increased sponsorship of bills designed to cultivate personal votes, thereby contributing to the growth in private legislation and bills aimed at local constituencies. Our results establish these reforms as a major event shaping lawmaking activity and, with it, the character of contemporary representation.

Nationalization and the Incumbency Advantage

“…In sum, we theorize that even as far back as the 1840s, representatives seeking to return to Congress had the opportunity to accrue certain benefits that made them more likely to win their reelection bids (see, e.g., Engstrom 2012; Finocchiaro and MacKenzie 2018). However, we also maintain that this incumbency advantage can increase in eras of low nationalization but will decrease when nationalization rises as we have seen during the past few decades.…”

Why Do Politicians Intervene in Accounting Regulation? The Role of Ideology and Special Interests

“…Co‐sponsorship of these bills is a publicly observable commitment by a representative that signals strong support. The measure is a well‐established empirical proxy for the involvement of politicians in congressional debates and is widely used in the political sciences (e.g., Krutz [2005], Sulkin and Swigger [2008], Finocchiaro and MacKenzie [2017]). This proxy is most useful if a political debate occurs in the pre‐floor arena and is resolved before it comes to a formal vote.…”

Institutional Development and Participation on House Roll-Call Votes, 1819–1921

“…The shift to the Australian, or official ballot starting in the late 1880s to the early 1910s had profound effects on voter behavior (Converse 1972;Engstrom and Kernell 2014;Rusk 1970) and on candidates winning and holding office in the House (Kernell 2003;MacKenzie 2015). The effects resulting from ballot reform extended into Congress and influenced the development of the committee system (Katz and Sala 1996), party cohesion and votes on pork barrel spending (Wittrock et al 2008), and bill sponsorship activities aimed at steering pension benefits to particular constituencies (Finocchiaro and MacKenzie 2018).…”