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The Political Geography of Distributive Politics
Author(s) -
Clemens Austin C.,
Crespin Michael H.,
Finocchiaro Charles J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
legislative studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.728
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1939-9162
pISSN - 0362-9805
DOI - 10.1111/lsq.12067
Subject(s) - distributive property , politics , realm , legislature , political science , positive economics , economic system , law , economics , mathematics , pure mathematics
Distributive politics plays an integral role in theories of legislative politics because it represents a fundamental aspect of legislators' electoral connection to constituents. We argue that because distributive politics is at its core a constituency‐centered process, it is essential to take geography into account in both substantive and statistical terms. Our analysis, which employs G eographic W eighted R egression, reveals substantial spatial heterogeneity in traditional models of pork‐barreling. The results challenge the implicit assumption that one size fits all when modeling the behavior of members of C ongress in the realm of distributive politics.