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Perquisite Employment in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1960-1976

The Influence of Generational Change

Vassar College

It has commonly been argued that freshman House members elected since the mid-1960s have been unusually aggressive in tending to their districts, but those making this case have relied upon impressionistic evidence. The analysis performed in this study shows that a generational change did indeed occur in the mid-1960s; freshman use of perquisites with value in cultivating constituent support has risen relative to that of veteran incumbents. Such disproportionate perquisite reliance by the "new generation," though, does not seem to continue for more than about three terms in office. But even during the first-term period of most intensive perquisite employment, there is no evidence to demonstrate that this aggressiveness has been a source of more recent freshmen's greater electoral success.

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