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Representation, Competing Principals, and Waffling on Bills in US Legislatures
Author(s) -
Kirkland Justin H.,
Harden Jeffrey J.
Publication year - 2016
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.12132
Subject(s) - legislature , legislation , representation (politics) , political science , position (finance) , state (computer science) , test (biology) , law and economics , public administration , law , politics , business , economics , computer science , paleontology , finance , algorithm , biology
Legislators are often placed in the position of representing the interests of their constituents against the preferences of their own party leaders. We develop a theoretical framework indicating that these cross‐pressured legislators are more likely to initially support legislation and subsequently change their minds than are legislators whose constituents and leaders share similar preferences. Moreover, we expect this pattern to be most pronounced among members of majority parties than minority‐party members. We test our expectations using data on bill cosponsorship and final passage votes from 46 lower state legislative chambers and the US House, finding considerable support for our theory.