Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Congressional Behavior'

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Why do legislators vote for some defense programs but against others? This issue is especially important now that Congress faces the need to cut defense programs while preserving U.S. security. The history of the V-22 offers a prime case study for examining congressional voting behavior for the post-Cold War era. This thesis reviews the literature on three possible explanations for congressional voting behavior: parochialism (the desire to benefit constituents), the Military-Industrial Complex or MIC (where votes are "bought" by industry campaigns contributions), and the personal preferences of individual members. The thesis uses logit equation to test and assess the validity of these hypothesis in the case of the V-22. No reliable connection was found between personal preference and voting on the V-22. Liberal Democrats that were assumed to be "dovish" on defense spending were just as likely as "hawkish" conservative Republicans to support this program. Nor was any evidence found to support the MIC hypothesis that voting is driven by PAC dollars. The likelihood of a representative supporting the V-22 actually decreased as PAC contributions increased. The parochial hypothesis was supported in the House but not in the Senate. Further research is required to find alternative explanations for defense voting behavior in the post-Cold War era.

The twin objectives of this dissertation, understanding political behavior as a social phenomenon and assessing the relative impacts of action and interaction on behavior, are realized through the empirical study of cosponsorship in the United States Congress. Cosponsorship, the formal support of a bill, is commonly said to be a rational action by a member of Congress designed to further electoral goals. However, it is also possible that cosponsorship is the arational result of social interaction. Processes based on the principles of action and interaction may occur within the Congress or with reference to entities outside the Congress. Combinations of principle and environment provide a simple theoretical framework from which a number of hypotheses are generated. To test these hypotheses, a random sample of 100 bills from the House of Representatives during the 105th Congress is generated. Information regarding leadership, reciprocity, congressional districts, campaign contributions, media coverage, election results, organizational memberships, member demography and bill cosponsorship is recorded for each combination of sampled bill, member of the House, and week the Congress was in session. Comparisons and relations between members are represented in matrix form. A combined network effects-discrete time approximation approach converts these matrices into individual-level predictions of a congressperson's likelihood of cosponsorship over time. Alternatively, QAP analysis regresses relations on relations to make cross-sectional predictions about any two members' cosponsorship overlap. Results illuminate the importance of interaction to political behavior.

This dissertation explores the extent to which weather and climate systematically affect political behavior. The idea that weather (and other elements of the natural world) exercise a fundamental influence on politics has long been a theme in classical and modern political thought. As political science moved from pure description to a more social-scientific form of analysis, scholars became less interested in understanding the impact of climate. If mentioned at all, weather typically is referred to as one of the various elements making up the "error term" in our statistical analyses. Recent work in the natural and social sciences, however, has suggested there are systematic and important links between weather, climate, and behavior. This work (which I review) not only inspires a return to a traditional focus of political analysis, but more importantly provides a number of hypotheses to guide our analysis of politics. Inclement weather increases the costs of moving from place to place. Sunlight enhances while extreme temperature depresses mood. Finally, hot weather is associated with enhanced aggression. These correlates of climate have implications for a variety of subfields across political science, including comparative politics and international relations. This dissertation concentrates primarily, however, on American politics, particularly from a behavioral perspective. To see if weather has a significant effect on politics, then, I explore behavior in four settings that have been especially important in mainstream studies: Presidential approval; social capital; Election Day voting; and finally elite participation (in the form of abstention on roll call voting). In terms of the first, if (as Zaller argues) a response to a telephone survey indeed entails a summing up of `considerations' regarding an issue rather than expression of a `true' attitude, then it is likely sunlight should stimulate positive responses to questions because it encourages the release of serotonin, which makes people more positive in general. Controlled logistic regression of sunlight on Presidential approval reveals that, in spring, sunlight boosts approval. The next chapter explores how hot climates and rain may reduce levels of social capital. This is because heat boosts levels of aggression, which should diminish helping behavior, and because rain makes it more difficult to volunteer and associate with other people. Analysis of state-level social capital data and city-level volunteer data provides some evidence that these propositions are correct. The third empirical chapter focuses upon voting on Election Day. While it finds that rain does have a depressive effect upon voting rates among the poor due to raising the costs associated with voting, there is little evidence that vote choice is affected by the weather. The final empirical chapter examines how weather conditions may affect voting rates among members of the United States House of Representatives, which seems possible because, like regular citizens during Election Day, House members pay costs when visiting the Capital to vote, and unpleasant weather could comprise a real if minor cost. OLS regression at the vote-level and logistic regression at the legislator level reveals that in the winter and spring, sunlight boosts voting, while summer humidity depresses voting and heat in winter has a positive effect. While these conclusions are interesting in themselves and meaningfully contribute to contemporary academic discussions, they further suggest some things about how we thing about political science. In particular, analyses of political topics could often be enhanced by reflectively considering the contents of the error term, as this exercise can offer new and useful perspective on current scholarship. Further, this dissertation also suggests that political science (and research in general) could benefit from taking a more comprehensive view of the environmental context of human behavior.

Elections are the engine that drives democracy. The central question of this dissertation relates to the speed of that engine: How long does it take for elections to reflect changing preferences in the electorate? The findings presented in this dissertation suggest that electoral change is the result of a gradual process of natural selection in which the political environment, rather than district service activity, is the key variable. Comparing elections data across different types of district environment, I find evidence that the environment affects levels of competition and electoral outcomes. Utilizing an event history statistical model to examine various risk factors for electoral defeat, I find that the political environment of the district is the most important factor influencing the risk of defeat even when controlling for district service behaviors. Over time, the district environment operates as a self-correcting mechanism, purging political misfits and replacing them with representatives who better reflect the ideology of the district. Electoral change typically results more from evolution than revolution – it may not occur quickly, and it may not occur in every district, but it does occur when and where it is needed.

In charge of a $15 trillion budget, the U.S. Congress functions as the largest business entity in the world. After the 2008 financial crisis, an increasing number of Americans became concerned about congressional leaders’ ability to handle business-related issues, such as high unemployment, housing foreclosures, declining stock prices, and business bankruptcies. Struggling to recover in a sluggish economy, Americans had the opportunity to communicate their approval or disapproval of congressional leaders’ handling of the U.S. economy in the midterm congressional election of 2012. To investigate how, if at all, Americans’ voting behavior in 2012 may have varied by their economic concern regarding the U.S. economy and approval of congressional leaders, an analysis of the American National Electoral Studies (ANES) survey was conducted. A quantitative study with a descriptive comparative design was conducted to analyze the ANES pre- and post- 2012 election surveys. While no significant differences were detected by gender (H1 - gender), economic concern differed significantly by age (H1 - age), education (H1 - education), political party (H2), state (H3), and congressional district (H4). Similarly, congressional approval varied significantly by all voter background variables (H5 - demographics, H6 - political party, H7 - state, and H8 - congressional district). Data analysis revealed that congressional approval varied significantly by a voter’s level of economic concern (H9). Additionally, frequency of voting differed significantly by participants’ economic concern and congressional approval (H10).

Political scientists have long noted that congressional elections are often uncompetitive, often extremely so. Many scholars argue that the cause lies in the partisan redistricting of congressional districts, or “gerrymandering”. Other scholars emphasize polarization created by a fragmented news media, or the candidate choices made by a more ideological primary electorate. All these explanations identify the cause of party-safe elections in institutions of various kinds. This dissertation, by contrast, presents a structural explanation of uncompetitive elections. My theory is that population composition and patterns of migration are significant causes and predictors of election results in Florida. I test this theory empirically by comparing the predictions from four hypotheses against aggregate data, using the county as the unit of analysis. The first hypothesis is that Florida can be divided into clearly distinguishable, persistent partisan sections. This hypothesis is confirmed. The second hypothesis is that Florida voters have become increasingly partisan over time. This hypothesis is confirmed. The third hypothesis is that the degree of migration into a county predicts how that county will vote. This hypothesis finds some confirmation. The last hypothesis is that the degree of religiosity of a county predicts how that county will vote. This hypothesis is confirmed. By identifying the structural causes of party-safe elections, this study not only contributes to our understanding of elections in Florida, but also sheds light on the current polarization in American politics.

The focus of this study was the organizational working environment and existing partisanship evident in the United States Congress. There has been a reduction in the number of laws passed over the last 30 years from a high of over 1,000 to a low of around 120, with a period of complete government shutdown in 2013. This qualitative research utilized qualitative content analysis to discover the nature of partisan conflict as demonstrated by 6 members of Congress. The conceptual framework for this study was moral foundations theory. Different moral principles held by Democrats and Republicans were studied as a possible explanation for the inability of one end of the political spectrum to identify with, work with, and comprehend the belief systems of the other. Archival video data for each participant was viewed on C-Span and related transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Emerging themes were then inductively coded in order to understand the nature of the partisan conflict in Congress. Results demonstrate that Republicans and Democrats rely on different sets of moral foundations and that there is limited crossover between those who occupy the extreme ends of the ideological continuum. This lack of crossover essentially leads members with differing ideology and moral foundations to not comprehend the moral message of their opponents. With this knowledge, political strategists can help to develop communication and political approaches that take into consideration the moral foundations of ideological opponents. Social change implications include improved understanding of the ideological stance of members of the opposing party and improved working relationships in Congress, resulting in an organizational working environment that is less conflicted.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xvi, 209 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-209). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

The interests of African Americans are underrepresented in Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus was formed to further the interests of African Americans. However, how effective the CBC may be in its congressional representation of the African American community is subject to dispute. It was hypothesized that throughout the 102^nd through the 112^th Congress (1992–2012), the CBC’s legislative behavior persuaded party leaders to advance the CBC’s legislative agenda. Archival data gathered by Scott Adler and John Wilkerson in their Congressional Bills Project 1947–2012 was utilized to complete the study. Linear regression T-tests and Chi-square tests were used to assess CBC members’ legislative behavior and the likelihood of the CBC introducing legislation that supported its legislative agenda. The results of the study show that the CBC demonstrated a robust legislative behavior of bill sponsorship, floor speeches and press conferences in support of its legislative agenda. The presence of the CBC in Congress is substantive, necessary to the success of legislation affecting African American interest and its’ legislative behavior is statistically significant compared to non-CBC members of Congress. The study validates, as essential, the presence of African American members of Congress.

This study analyzes activist behavior of Supreme Court justices in 132 decisions which struck down congressional statutes as unconstitutional in 1789-1990. Analysis of the justices' activist rates and liberalism scores demonstrate that these votes are ideologically based. Integrated models containing personal attribute and case factor variables are constructed to explore the votes as activist behavior. The same models are also tested with a new dependent variable constructed to measure the nullification votes as liberal votes. The models which explain the votes as ideological responses better explain the votes than the models which explain the votes as activism or restraint. The attribute variables offer better explanation in the late 20th century models and the case factors offer better explanation in the early period models.

This dissertation presents a theoretical framework about which voters parties distribute to and with which policies. To develop this full framework of distributive policies, the dissertation proceeds in two stages. First, it analyses which voters parties have more incentives to target distributive policies. Second, it also develops the conditions under which political parties can focus exclusively on these voters or need to combine this strategy with appeals to a broader electorate. The first part of the argument analyses which voters parties have at the centre of their distributive strategies, or, in the words of Cox and McCubbins (1986) to whom parties will give an available extra dollar for distribution. The argument is that core voters provide more efficient conditions for distribution, contradicting Stokes’ (2005) claim that a dollar spent on core voters is a wasted dollar. The explanation is twofold. First, core supporters might not vote for another party, but they can get demobilised. Once we include the effects on turnout, core voters are more responsive. Their party identification makes them especially attentive and reactive to economic benefits provided by their party. Secondly, incumbents cannot individually select who receives a distributive policy, and not all voters are equally reachable with distributive policies. When a party provides a policy, it cannot control if some of those resources go to voters the party is not interested in. Core supporters are more homogenous groups with more definable traits, whereas swing voters are a residual category composed by heterogeneous voters with no shared interests. This makes it easier for incumbents to shape distributive benefits that target core voters more exclusively. These mechanisms define the general distribution hypothesis: parties will focus on core voters, by targeting their distributive strategies to them. The second part of the dissertation develops the conditions under which politicians stick to this distributive strategy or, instead, would provide more universalistic spending to a more undefined set of recipients. The conventional argument explaining this choice relies on the electoral system, arguing that proportional systems give more incentives to provide universalistic policies than majoritarian systems. This dissertation challenges this argument and provides two other contextual conditions that define when parties have a stronger interest in their core supporters or in a more general electorate. First, the geographic distribution of core supporters across districts is a crucial piece of information to know the best distributive strategy. When parties’ core supporters are geographically concentrated, they cannot simply rely on them, as the party will always fall short of districts to win the election. Therefore, parties will have greater incentives to expand their electorate by buying off other voters. This should reduce the predicted differences between electoral systems in the provision of universalistic programmes. Secondly, the policy positions of candidates are a result of strategic considerations that respond to other candidates’ positions. Thus, I argue that parties adapt their distributive strategies to the number of competing parties, independently of the electoral system. In a two-party scenario, parties need broader coalitions of electoral support. In equilibrium, any vote can change the electoral outcome. As more parties compete, the breadth of parties’ electorates is reduced and parties will find narrow distributive policies more profitable. In summary, the main contribution of this dissertation one is to provide a new framework to study distributive politics. This framework makes innovations both on the characterisation of swing and core electoral groups, and the rationale of parties’ distributive strategies, contributing to advance previous theoretical and empirical research.

This thesis examines two organizational strategies employed for influencing American environmental policy with considerations to the "power elite" and "pluralist" models of policy control. Using a data set comprised of 379 organizations derived from US congressional hearings on climate change policy between 1976 and 2006, I find that industrial corporations conceal the public footprint of their involvement by financially encouraging "independent" research centers to provide favorable testimony. Meanwhile, nonprofit organizations are more likely to be co-represented by shared experts, a resource that is strategically shared for political gain. These findings provide some circumscribed support for both the power elite and pluralist models of organizational influence: the organization of power elites has a disproportionate amount of resources in a system that provides an arena for competing values and goals. Implications for understanding the organizational strategies towards congressional testimony as well as directions for future research are discussed based on these findings.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
圖書資訊學研究所
96
Congressional assistants play an important bureaucratic role in helping legislators deal with legislative duties and political affairs. The objectives of this study are: first, trying to fathom Congressional assistants’ needs, behaviors, researching methods and motivations of information seeking; second, trying to evaluate the information surroundings of the Parliamentary Library, which provides basic legislative information for Congressional assistants. The aim is to proffer references and suggestions for the service planning of the Parliamentary Library. The study belongs to qualitative research and adopts the in-depth interview approach, using the Parliamentary Library as the model case. I have invited ten Congressional assistants whose main tasks including bill research for interview. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of these Congressional assistants’ behaviors and the external situations when they execute information seeking. Analysis includes the interactivities and impacts between the targeted persons and the technological surroundings. I interpret the components of the interviewing records and consequently invent a format of the Congressional assistants’ legislative information seeking behaviors. The results of this study suggest that Congressional assistants mainly search the legislative information for two tasks: one, handling the issues and problems about the bill research; two, providing services for civilians. The Congressional assistants decide what channel is best according to specific needs. Also, their legislative information seeking can be swayed by social or personal factors. The Web site of the Parliamentary Library is seen as the first step on legislative information seeking, while searching methods differ from person to person. Primarily Congressional assistants seek and judge the compatibility of the specific information on their own, choosing recorded or printed documents according to their needs. Factors that influence the information seeking process include as follows: classified information are less than enough so as to cause the difficulties of information gathering; the content of the Web site does not correspond to social issues. When it comes to whether such information is useful, Congressional assistants regard the spontaneity and availability as most important factors. The results also show that the Web site and the repertoire of the Parliamentary Library basically satisfy the needs of Congressional assistants. This thesis uses the results to offer suggestions for the resources and services of the Parliamentary Library. The Parliamentary Library should do more to cater to the information needs of the committee since the scale of the Parliament has been halved. As far as the information gathering is concerned, the Parliamentary Library had better strengthen the gathering of the local and the national information so as to satisfy specific needs of legislators. In the aspect of information value-added services, related laws of Parliament, the introduction and translation of foreign regulations, and the special information services that are catered to individual legislators and Congressional assistants need improvement. When it comes to information service planning, the Parliament Library is supposed to hold the poll to better understand the needs of regular searchers. As far as the development of the library resources, the gathering and circulation of gray literature can be highly achieved through the collaboration of the administrative department and the research team. As to the interlibrary resources, the interlibrary system should be established to help resources exchange via the links.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
圖書資訊學研究所在職進修碩士班
99
The study adopted quantitative methods to investigate the legislative information behavior of congressional legislative assistants and service satisfaction as well as use scenario of Parliamentary Library by questionnaire. The purpose of this study is to grasp the legislative information behavior of congressional legislative assistants and understand whether the existing services of Parliamentary Library could correspond to the real information needs of users in order to provide the suggestion and reference for Parliamentary Library when they prepare policies and plan services in order to enhance service quality. The findings of this study are as follows. For the information needs of Congressional legislative assistants, the study found they needed to look for and read job-related information frequently. The relationship between the information needs and solving problems was high. The information seeking behavior of congressional legislative assistants are as follows: 1. The main channels of obtaining job-related information are the website of Parliamentary Library and search engines. 2. The important information channels are Internet search and interpersonal relationships when they cannot find the information in the Legislative Yuan. 3. The most use of a variety of sources information includes assessment report of general budget and general financial statement of central government, bill tracking, legislative research reports, and records of law-making. 4. The influence factors of information search include: 1. information too much, no time to read, or found the information which can not apply to the problem often met; 2. information can only be used in office and unable to query or use at home that bothered them. The information use behaviors of Congressional legislative assistants are as follows: 1. Information quality is the primary consideration factor. 2. The reliability of the sources of information is the primary factor to assess the value of information. The influences of Congressional legislative assistants’ background to information behavior are as follows： 1. There is no significant from the information needs aspects. 2. The assistants’ age, their legislators attending committee and disciplines have significant impact for sources of information. 3. There is relationship between assistants’ age and the consideration factor of information selection for awareness of information. For the use scenario of Parliamentary Library for the Congressional legislative assistants is as follows: 1. More than half of the Congressional legislative assistants almost daily use library-related resources. 2. The current law in force is the most subscribed information through RSS and e-paper. 3. The News Knowledge Management System is the largest using rate among the website of Parliamentary Library. 4. There are no problems for Congressional legislative assistants to use library resources but a portion of them are not clear to the library resources and services. 5. The most satisfaction service for Congressional legislative assistants is the self-service system for books and periodicals. On the other hand, the lowest satisfaction service for them is the lack of comfortable reading seats. The suggestions from the study results are as follows: First, to survey the users needs periodically; Second, to strengthen the information service marketing and promotion of Parliamentary Library; Third, to strengthen the website interaction mechanism of Parliamentary Library; Fourth, to establish the training of Internet resources search skills; Fifth, to establish interlibrary cooperation; Sixth; to improve the library hardware.