Conducting the Heavenly Chorus: Constituent Contact and Provoked Petitioning in Congress

Abstract

Congress hears more and more from everyday citizens. How do modern Congressional offices use this information to represent their constituents? Drawing on original interviews and a survey of Congressional staff, we explore how representation works in practice when new data and tools, such as databases and downscaled public opinion polls, are available. In contrast with established theories that focus on responsiveness, we show that representation is a two-way street. Congressional offices both respond to incoming constituent opinion and reach out to elicit opinions from stakeholders. Offices record correspondence into databases, identifying the most salient issues and the balance of opinion among correspondents. They tend not to use polls on policy. To understand the opinions of electorally influential constituencies, staffers also proactively reach out to stakeholders and experts in a practice we call provoked petitioning. If the Washington pressure system is a chorus, Congressional staff often serve as conductors, allowing well-resourced and organized constituents, including interest groups, to sing with the loudest voices. While Congress has some new tools and strategies for representation, its modern practices still reinforce existing biases.

Letters to leaders: Political participation and punctuated equilibrium theory

“…The punctuated pattern for both the overall letters, and each individual CAP topic may also help us consider the role of constituent contact, and how it fits into the broader political participation and accountability frameworks (Aars & Strømsnes, 2007;Dubrow et al, 2022;Henderson et al, 2021). As explained above, these patterns of behaviour arise due to the cognitive limitations of individuals and institutions.…”

Air pollution is associated with lower levels of social movement participation, especially among well-resourced communities.

“…We find greater support for the latter effect, consistent with extant research documenting the negative effect of pollution on economic productivity. Our results may be a lower-bound of the demobilizing effect of air pollution, given that we focus on more information-rich forms of political participation (e.g., contacting elected officials) rather than voting (Griffin and Newman 2005;Schlozman, Brady and Verba 2018;Henderson et al 2021). If rainfall reduces voter turnout by up to one percentage point (Gomez, Hansford and Krause 2007;Fujiwara, Meng and Vogl 2016), so too might exposures to air pollutants which threaten human health (Deryugina et al 2019).…”

“…While voting in an election is the most widespread and regular form of political participation, a great deal of public engagement in the democratic process occurs between elections. Unlike the so-called "blunt instrument" of voting for candidates, which does not directly communicate policy preferences (Schlozman, Brady and Verba 2018), "information-rich" forms of participation such as contacting elected officials can change representatives' perceptions of their constituents' desires regarding particular issues (Griffin and Newman 2005;Henderson et al 2021)).…”

“…Aggregate-level political participation is also more likely to elicit government reform (Mayhew 1974). For instance, Henderson et al (2021) show that staff for elected officials tend to incorporate constituent communications in their advice to their bosses only if a critical mass of constituents has taken the time to express a unified point of view.…”

Conducting Interview Projects in the US Congress: Analyzing the Methods of Experts in the Field

“…Thus, it represents an important focus of academic researchers’ attention. While the study of Congress has in recent decades been dominated by studies of publicly available data, there has been a recent growth in studying Congress up close, including via in‐person interviews (e.g., Crosson et al 2021; Curry and Lee 2020; Henderson et al 2021). Surprisingly, this increasing interest in qualitative interview projects has not been met with up‐to‐date, comprehensive methodological advice, leaving scholars who are new to the enterprise without adequate guidance.…”