Premium
THE INFLUENCE OF IDEOLOGY ON CONGRESSIONAL VOTING
Author(s) -
BENDER BRUCE
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.1991.tb00836.x
Subject(s) - voting , congressman , ideology , house of representatives , economics , maximization , administration (probate law) , public administration , value (mathematics) , political science , law and economics , microeconomics , law , politics , public economics , computer science , machine learning
This paper investigates the influence of ideology on congressional voting. The conceptual framework is based on the assumption that the congressman's objective is the maximization of the expected value of his office. A comparative analysis of voting on two proposed floor amendments to the U. S. House Administration Committee's 1974 Federal Election Campaign Act bill indicates that congressmen will ignore ideological considerations when the opportunity cost of not ignoring them is sufficiently high. Voting on one of these amendments is found to be consistent with shirking as broadly defined.