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Congressional Salaries and the Politics of Unpopular Votes

University of Georgia

This article examines the process of roll call voting when constituency pressures run counter to the desires of legislators. Previous research has emphasized concerns about reelection. Using votes on the congressional pay raise of 1989, I demonstrate that a variety of legislative goals are useful for explaining the roll call decisions made by members of the House of Representatives. Members turned to reelection, policy, power, and economic self-interest in deciding how to vote on the pay raise issue. Importantly, the contexts of the voting decisions help to explain both the behavior of individual legislators and the ultimate outcome of the legislative process.

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