The Elusive Quest for Convergence

Abstract

Does American political representation work as predicted by theory? On average, political candidates diverge considerably in their ideological positioning, but do they diverge less on issues of particular salience to their local constituents? We combine data on congressional roll call votes, electoral outcomes, district demographics, and substantive information about bills to search for convergence in the places we would most expect to find it. Despite the predictions of prominent models, legislators diverge just as much even when their constituents have strong interests in a particular policy area. These results provide new insights into policymaking and political representation, and they help distinguish between different theoretical explanations for why candidate positions diverge.

How Dispositional Empathy Influences Political Ambition

“…State legislators systematically misperceive the opinions of their constituents (Broockman and Skovron 2014). Elected officials also frequently discount the attitudes of constituents who disagree with them (Butler and Dynes 2015) and this lack of convergence with public opinion extends to both high and low salience issues (Fowler and Hall 2016).…”

How Partisan Is Local Law Enforcement? Evidence from Sheriff Cooperation with Immigration Authorities

“…Republican and Democratic representatives make unmistakably different policy choices across a wide range of offices, even when compared with others serving the same constituents (Ansolabehere, Snyder, and Stewart 2001; Bafumi and Herron 2010; Besley and Case 2003; Caughey, Xu, and Warshaw 2017; de Benedictis-Kessner and Warshaw 2018; Fowler and Hall 2016; Lee, Moretti, and Butler 2004). The similarity of policies put in place by Republican and Democratic executives at the local level may be an exception or it may simply reflect the constraints executives face (Ferreira and Gyourko 2009; Gerber and Hopkins 2011).…”

Exploring Responsiveness in the U.S. House of Representatives

“…And beyond expected partisan and ideological variance, demographically-unique constituencies should reveal valuable information about the legislative behavior we should expect to see (Adler and Lapinksi 1997;Fowler and Hall 2016), such that issue-specific behavior should comport with unique district compositions. In short, constituencies should While there is room to expect constituent impact on legislative behavior, the linkage between constituents and 4 specific issues must also be established.…”

“…Others, though, are less sanguine about elite responsiveness, contending that it is quite elusive. Legislators may not be as representative of and responsive to constituents as some consider (Bafumi and Herron 2010;Fowler and Hall 2016). And still others find evidence responsiveness, but in conditional, limited, and indirect contexts (Clinton 2006;Lax and Phillips 2012;Waggoner 2018).…”