Indirect Election and the Democratization of the United States Senate: Constitutional Design, Historical Development, Roll Call Voting, and the Outcome of National Election

The goal of this dissertation is to make a series of interrelated points regarding the relationship between ideas, institutions, and behavior with respect to indirect election and the United States Senate. The dissertation begins with an investigation of the origins and development of the Classical Republican and Classical Liberal principles that laid the foundation for indirect election in the American Constitution. The dissertation then goes on to explore the institutional, socioeconomic, and political factors responsible for the decline in the popularity of indirect election of the federal Senate in the aftermath of the Civil War. The dissertation then presents a detailed analysis of U.S. Senate roll call votes related to issues of federal power (vis-a-vis state power) and broad socioeconomic interests (vis-a-vis narrow socioeconomic interests) to investigate what impact direct and indirect election had upon the voting behavior of Senators. Finally, the dissertation investigates the impact of direct and indirect election upon the outcome of national elections, i.e. the frequency of divided government, the frequency of split Congresses, the average length of a single party's majority control of the Senate, the disruption of seat to vote ratios, and the question of partisan advantage.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Sopp, James Reber

Contributors dc:contributor

• Paul J. Quirk

• History, United States

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9921736

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82600