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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Congressional Representation Of Black Interests: Recognizing The Importance Of Stability, Guy-Uriel Charles, Vincent L. Hutchins, Harwood K. Mcclerking Jan 2004

Congressional Representation Of Black Interests: Recognizing The Importance Of Stability, Guy-Uriel Charles, Vincent L. Hutchins, Harwood K. Mcclerking

Faculty Scholarship

The relationship between black constituency size and congressional support for black interests has two important attributes: magnitude and stability. Although previous research has examined the first characteristic, scant attention has been directed at the second. This article examines the relationship between district racial composition and congressional voting patterns with a particular emphasis on the stability of support across different types of votes and different types of districts. We hypothesize that, among white Democrats, the influence of black constituency size will be less stable in the South, owing in part to this region’s more racially divided constituencies. Examining LCCR scores from …


Congressional Actions And Public Reactions., Jason Gainous Jan 2004

Congressional Actions And Public Reactions., Jason Gainous

Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores the link between congressional actions and public attitudes about government responsiveness, public efficacy, and public trust in government. Congressional actions are moves by members of Congress that are potentially consequential to public opinion. The theory contends that actions taken by Congress influence these perspectives on government within an alert stratum of the public. This relationship is demonstrated by employing a pooled time-series logistical regression modeling data that come from the American National Election Studies merged with historical actions data. The findings support the contention that increased actions by Congress increase public efficacy and trust in government, and …