Dynamic responsiveness in the American states : legislators, constituents, and organized interests

An independent commission redrew California's electoral map after the 2012 redistricting cycle, inducing large, exogenous shocks to the composition and policy preferences of many districts. The first paper of the dissertation assesses repositioning among members of the state legislature. Did they respond when redistricting led to changes in the policy ideology of their districts? The result speaks to the kind of representation that constituents receive-and the obstacles facing would-be reformers. The paper is the first in the literature to identify the causal quantity of interest using design-based inference; it also improves on previous measures of district ideology. Contrary to prior findings, there is little evidence of responsiveness to shifts in district preferences from redistricting. This result points to the role of strong parties and organized interests in the selection of representatives and legislative activity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Dunham, James(James Wolcott)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Charles Stewart III.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121603

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121603