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Book Cover
E-book
Author Sulkin, Tracy

Title The legislative legacy of congressional campaigns / Tracy Sulkin
Published New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011

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Description 1 online resource (x, 221 pages) : illustrations
Contents 1. Promises to keep? -- 2. Campaigns as signals -- 3. Campaign appeals and legislative activity -- 4. Mechanisms underlying promise keeping -- 5. Promise making and promise keeping on defense and environmental issues -- 6. The who, when, and where of follow-through -- 7. The electoral implications of promise keeping -- 8. Promises and policy making -- 9. Representation, responsiveness, and the electoral connection
Summary "Do members of Congress follow through on the appeals they make in campaigns? The answer to this question lies at the heart of assessments of democratic legitimacy. This study demonstrates that, contrary to the conventional wisdom that candidates appeals are just cheap talk, campaigns actually have a lasting legacy in the content of representatives and senators behavior in office. Legislators face clear incentives to offer sincere claims in their campaigns, so their appeals often serve as good signals about the issues they will pursue in Congress. Levels of promise-keeping vary in a systematic fashion across legislators, across types of activity, across time, and across chamber. Moreover, legislators, responsiveness to their appeals shapes their future electoral fortunes and career choices, and their activity on their campaign themes leaves a tangible trace in public policy outputs. Understanding the dynamics of promise-keeping thus has important implications for our evaluations of the quality of campaigns and the strength of representation in the United States"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Legislators -- Professional relationships -- United States
Political campaigns -- United States
Political planning -- United States
Representative government and representation -- United States
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- General.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- Legislative Branch.
Political campaigns
Political planning
Representative government and representation
United States
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781139077187
113907718X
9780511973734
051197373X
9781139079457
113907945X
1107215706
9781107215702
1283110806
9781283110808
9786613110800
6613110809
1139069152
9781139069151