Stamps of Power and Conflict: Imprinting and Influence in the U.S. Senate, 1973-2005

Abstract

Gains in structural power are often assumed to lead to greater influence. Yet people vary in their ability to convert structural power into influence. We bring a temporal, historical perspective to account for this heterogeneity. We propose that-even when they have had considerable prior experience-people can acquire institution-specific imprints when they enter a new work setting and that these imprints can affect how influential they become when they later gain or lose power. In particular, we argue that those who enter the setting as part of a dominant coalition can be imprinted with a "stamp of power," which impairs their social learning and undermines their ability to translate downstream changes in power into influence. We evaluate and find support for this proposition in analyses of the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2005.

Virtues, Vices, and Political Influence in the U.S. Senate

“…For each senator, we then derived a measure of political influence based on his or her ability to successfully enlist colleagues as collaborative cosponsors on bills that he or she originated in a given Congress (Fowler, 2006b; Liu & Srivastava, 2015b). To ensure that collaborations were meaningful, rather than symbolic, we restricted our analysis to bills with fewer than five cosponsors (symbolic collaborations on bills often enlist dozens of sponsors but are not meaningful indicators of interpersonal influence; Theriault, 2013).…”