The Precarious Link between Legislators and Constituent Opinion: Evidence from Matched Roll Call and Referendum Votes

Matsusaka, John G.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2612342

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…It would be highly convenient if ideological scales did not exhibit such pathologies. Capturing data on citizens' views on the same issues that legislators have taken positions on and examining a hypothesis for each issue requires exceptional effort (e.g., Gilens 2012;Lax and Phillips 2012;Lloren and W€ uest 2014;Matsusaka 2015). Constructing a "joint scale" that bridges politicians and voters may require only a few points of overlap (e.g., Bafumi and Herron 2010;Barber 2014;Jessee 2009;Shor 2013), or potentially none (Aldrich and McKelvey 1977;Hare et al 2014;Ramey 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

Approaches to Studying Policy Representation

Broockman¹

2016

Legislative Studies Qtrly

124

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Some studies of policy representation test hypotheses about the relationship between citizens' views and elites' positions on multiple issues by proceeding one issue at a time. Others summarize citizens' and elites' preferences with “ideology scores” and test hypotheses with these. I show that approach is flawed. It misinterprets citizens' ideology scores as summaries of policy preferences, but these scores actually measure ideological consistency across areas: how often citizens' ideal policies are liberal or conservative. Examples show how attending to this distinction overturns conventional wisdom: legislators appear similarly moderate as citizens, not more extreme; however, politically engaged citizens appear especially moderate.

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confidence: 99%

Approaches to Studying Policy Representation

Broockman¹

2016

Legislative Studies Qtrly

124

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“…Congruence at the level of individual votes can be calculated using opinion survey data or referendum votes, as in this paper. Recent studies in this vein include Portmann et al, (2012), Brunner et al (2013), Stadelmann et al (2013Stadelmann et al ( , 2014, and Matsusaka (2015). Note.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this case, a noncongruent vote might be more of an "honest mistake" than a deliberate decision to go against district preferences. Matsusaka (2015) reports evidence against the honest mistakes hypothesis. For the purposes of the present study, it is not important why congruence and noncongruence occur; the issue is how we can measure them.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The coefficient is different from zero at the 5 percent level. A possible explanation for this pattern is that noncompetitive districts are more likely to elect legislators who are ideologically aligned with their constituents, and ideology determines roll call votes (Matsusaka, 2015). The responsiveness regression produces a negative coefficient on the interaction term between district opinion and vote margin.…”

Section: Panel B Ofmentioning

confidence: 96%

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'Responsiveness' as a Measure of Representation

Matsusaka

2015

SSRN Journal

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The study of representation requires being able to measure representation. The concept to be measured, in the abstract, is the distance or "congruence" between legislators and their constituents, but data limitations often preclude measuring congruence directly. A popular alternative is to regress legislator roll call votes on a proxy for constituent preferences, with the coefficient labeled "responsiveness." Previous research has shown that there is no theoretical connection between the responsiveness coefficient and congruence. This paper investigates if there is an empirical connection between the responsiveness coefficient and congruence. I study 3,242 roll call votes on state laws that were subsequently challenged in a referendum; for such laws, one can construct both congruence and the responsiveness coefficient. The main finding is that the responsiveness coefficient has no consistent connection to congruence, meaning that it does not provide a reliable measure of representation.The study of representation requires being able to measure representation. The concept to be measured, in the abstract, is the distance or "congruence" between legislators and their constituents, but data limitations often preclude measuring congruence directly. A popular alternative is to regress legislator roll call votes on a proxy for constituent preferences, with the coefficient labeled "responsiveness." Previous research has shown that there is no theoretical connection between the responsiveness coefficient and congruence. This paper investigates if there is an empirical connection between the responsiveness coefficient and congruence. I study 3,242 roll call votes on state laws that were subsequently challenged in a referendum; for such laws, one can construct both congruence and the responsiveness coefficient. The main finding is that the responsiveness coefficient has no consistent connection to congruence, meaning that it does not provide a reliable measure of representation.June 2015 * Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome: matsusak@usc.edu. I thank USC for support.

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“…In order to overcome these problems, combining roll call votes and referendum decisions on identical issues is gaining growing interest in the literature (see, e.g., Gerber and Lewis 2004, Matsusaka 2010, 2017, Portmann et al 2012, Hug and Martin 2012, Carey and Hix 2013, Brunner et al 2013, Potrafke 2013, Giger and Klüver 2016, Barceló 2018, Stadelmann et al 2017. Following this approach, we combine roll call votes and referendum decisions in Switzerland to empirically investigate the role of electoral rules on the way politicians represent their constituents' preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%