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Despite heightened partisanship in the U.S. Congress and constituencies split along ideological lines, congressional representatives frequently buck their parties and seldom do precisely what voters ask. In Personal Roots of Representation, Barry Burden challenges standard explanations of legislative preferences to emphasize the important role that personal influences play in representatives' voting behavior. This timely book is the first to examine the extent to which the very same values, experiences, and interests that shape congressional members as individuals and guide their own life choices similarly shape their policymaking decisions. Burden takes a close look at legislative decision making in the areas of tobacco regulation, vouchers and school choice, and religion and bioethics. He finds that personal factors become more significant when legislators are acting proactively rather than reactively, grappling with specific policy issues, and defending rather than challenging the status quo. Marshaling both qualitative and quantitative evidence, Burden reveals that the personal roots of representatives' actions can be as influential as the usual suspects of partisanship and constituency--and that personal factors quite often have the greatest impact when the policymaking stakes are at their highest. Personal Roots of Representation is a provocative book that raises pressing new questions about legislative discretion and the accountability of our elected officials

Despite heightened partisanship in the U.S. Congress and constituencies split along ideological lines, congressional representatives frequently buck their parties and seldom do precisely what voters ask. In Personal Roots of Representation, Barry Burden challenges standard explanations of legislative preferences to emphasize the important role that personal influences play in representatives' voting behavior. This timely book is the first to examine the extent to which the very same values, experiences, and interests that shape congressional members as individuals and guide their own life

Barry Burden challenges standard explanations of legislative preferences to emphasize the important role that personal influences play in representatives' voting behavior. This timely book is the first to examine the extent to which the very same values, experiences, and interests that shape congressional members as individuals and guide their own life choices similarly shape their policymaking decisions. Burden takes a close look at legislative decision making in the areas of tobacco regulation, vouchers and school choice, and religion and bioethics. He finds that personal factors become more significant when legislators are acting proactively rather than reactively, grappling with specific policy issues, and defending rather than challenging the status quo. Marshaling both qualitative and quantitative evidence, Burden reveals that the personal roots of representatives' actions can be as influential as the usual suspects of partisanship and constituency--and that personal factors quite often have the greatest impact when the policymaking stakes are at their highest.

AbstractPresident Donald Trump entered the 2020 campaign with liabilities that made his reelection bid daunting. Despite an enthusiastic support base, Trump was soundly defeated in both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Trump's perceived mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic and uprisings over racial inequality prevented him from altering the trajectory of the campaign that had been set in his first election. A unified Democratic Party rallied behind former Vice President Joseph Biden as the candidate most likely to defeat Trump and restore normalcy. Although Republicans fared reasonably well in subpresidential races, the verdict of voters resulted in the rare removal of an incumbent party after just 4 years in the White House.

I argue that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan employed a strategy to prevent unpopular prime ministers from tainting the party's image. Time-series analyses of public opinion data from 1960 to 2006 show that national economic performance had modest effects on prime minister support ratings and no effects on LDP ratings. When prime minister ratings fall below party ratings, cabinets are more likely to be reshuffled and prime ministers to be replaced to avoid having the cabinet's negative image 'rub off' on the LDP. Although electoral rules, culture, and other factors surely play a role in sustaining the LDP, I show for the first time that the party manages its cabinet personnel strategically to maintain support.

Despite achieving a 60-seat majority in the 111th Senate, Democrats were unable to pass many of their key legislative priorities without support from Republicans. The striking inability of Democrats to govern the Senate despite a filibuster-proof majority demonstrates key differences between the chambers of Congress. Whereas party polarization helps the majority party in the House of Representatives to exert more control over the legislative process, in the Senate it aids the minority. Because Republicans viewed the Senate as their main opportunity for hindering the Democratic agenda, the GOP benefitted from their partys ideological cohesion and rules favoring obstruction. Adapted from the source document.