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The Dynamics of Constituency

Electoral Control in the House

Grinnell College

This study offers a longitudinal analytic model designed to tap the degree to which members of the U.S. House of Representatives are responsive to constituency opinion in a dynamic sense. This, after all, is what constituency electoral control means: Regular elections are supposed to assure ongoing constituency control and force the representative to change his or her policy making behavior with changes in constituency opinion. The study employs roll call data and the University of Michigan national election survey series to show evidence of constituency electoral control when there is a decline in the margin of victory for the incumbent over time or when there is actual turnover. Under more normal conditions, however, and even when there is a visible source of change in constituency opinion (redistricting), there is little evidence of ongoing constituency control resulting in responsiveness.

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