The document discusses several Supreme Court rulings and their implications for Congress, including the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and comprehensive immigration reform. It also examines the relationship between representatives and their constituents, discussing Edmund Burke's perspective that representatives should use their own judgment rather than always obeying constituents' opinions. The document summarizes a key study by Miller and Stokes that used surveys and roll call votes to examine constituent influence on representatives across different policy issues, finding the strongest influence on civil rights issues and the weakest on foreign policy issues.

1. Day 2 – The Representative-Constituency
Linkage
June 27, 2013

2. In the News
 Supreme Court Rulings on VRA, DOMA, and Prop. 8
and how they affect Congress
 Accompanying Supreme Court Rulings is the “Running of
the Interns”
 http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/the-2013-running-of-
the-interns

3. Gay Marriage Rulings
 What is DOMA?
 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/104/hr3396
 Changes in gay marriage legislation over time.
 http://graphics.latimes.com/usmap-gay-marriage-chronology/
 The decision yesterday.
 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036789/#52326724
 Implications for Congress?
 Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR)
 http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/gay-marriage-ruling-
immigration-bill-93420.html
 Why have Republicans quickly changed positions on immigration?
 http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/11/07/latino-voters-in-the-2012-election/

4. The Two Congresses (DOL 3-13)
 Congress as a collegial body, performing
constitutional duties, and debating legislative issues
that affect the entire nation.
 Complex network of rules, organizations, and traditions.
 Congress as a representative assembly of 541
individuals.

5. Two Constituencies
 Constituents at home
 Colleagues in Congress
 *MCs constantly deal with tension between lawmaking
and representing.
 Sometimes this means breaking from party and
politicians to appease one’s constituency.
 Example: Joe Manchin – Democratic Senator from West
Virginia
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJORBRpOPM
 Or breaking away from the national party
 The popularity of Washington Republicans vs. state
Republicans.
 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036789/#52304879 (1:30)

6. Edmund Burke’s Perspective
 “Your representative owes you, not his industry only,
but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving
you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
 5 minutes on a scratch sheet of paper.
 Do you agree or disagree with Burke’s argument? Is it
too simplistic? Is he right in some contexts and not in
others?

7. Citizen Perceptions
 As an institution, Congress is judged mainly on the
basis of citizens’ overall attitudes toward politics.
 Citizens view their own legislators are largely agents
of local concerns.

8. Source:
http://www.npr.o
rg/2010/12/17/1
32141805/why-
we-love-to-hate-
congress
Source:
http://teachingwit
hdata.blogspot.co
m/2010_11_01_a
rchive.html

9. Constituency Influence In Congress (Miller
and Stokes 1963)
 Key research question: How much influence do
constituents have on their Congressmen’s behavior?
 In particular, do legislators respond similarly in each
situation or do they respond differently on different
issues?
 What dimensions do they examine?

10. Three Models of Representation
 Constituency Control
 Legislator votes according to wishes of constituents
 Responsible Parties Hypothesis
 Legislator votes in line with national party
 Trustee model
 Legislator votes according to their own judgment.

11. Questions for Reading
 What specific policies do they examine?
 What method do they use to gather data? (p.46)
 How do they describe electoral behavior? How do
they characterize voters? (p.53)
 What do they find, in particular, do they find support
for constituency influence, responsible parties, or the
trustee model? Does this vary by policy issue?

12. Model
From Miller and Stokes (1963) p.50
The constituency can influence the decisions of the representative in two ways: 1)
The legislator, is so similar to his constituents’ that in following his own convictions
he does his constituent’s will. 2) Legislator follows her perceptions of district attitude
in order to win re-election.

13. Measurement
 Congressmen ranked according to:
 Roll Call Votes
 Information revealed in confidential surveys
 Candidates ranked according to:
 Information revealed in confidential surveys
 Constituents:
 Average of attitude scores of all constituents living in the
same districts
 Measure of the dominant electoral elements in the district

14. Results
 From these measures, they can derive an empirical measure of the extent of policy
agreement between legislator and district.
From Miller and Stokes (1963) p.49

15. Initial findings
 Social and economic welfare – 0.3 agreement, MCs
are, on average, more or less “liberal” than their
districts.
 No agreement on foreign policy.
 And the strongest agreement on civil rights – 0.6

16. From Miller and Stokes (1963) p.52

17. From Miller and Stokes (1963) p.52
Roll call votes on VRA confirm the delegate model (largely based on region)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/89-1965/h87