Collaborative Research: Legislative Audiences and Dear Colleague Letters

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

General Summary Democratic representation is based on the ideal that elected leaders represent the values of the electorate. This view has informed much of the study of Congress as a collection of independent members concerned with their electoral fortunes, yet it does not account for the relationships that members must maintain with competing audiences beyond the voters. This project advances our understanding of congressional behavior by examining how members of Congress balance the expectations of six distinctive audiences: voters, parties, colleagues, contributors, interest groups, and the media. Viewing Congress as part of a larger network of the legislature and its audiences leads to a fuller understanding of the behavior of members that better reflects the realities of the 21st century Congress, while also addressing pluralist and elitist perspectives on interest groups and Congress. Through the creation of a new measure of policy collaboration and a data set of congressional communications, this project provides new insights into the relationships between members, with interest groups, and how they set priorities within the constraints of the contemporary legislature. The results of this research will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how relationships inside and outside of the legislative environment affect policy outcomes, the functioning of the legislature, and our understanding of democratic representation. Technical Summary This project offers a new theoretical explanation of legislative behavior based on the audiences that members of legislature must appease and the actions that they take to do so. We address important questions of how members of Congress use interest groups to advance their own agenda, how members benefit from collaboration with their colleagues, and how members choose to prioritize and promote different types of legislation. The PIs apply recent innovations in text analysis and network methods to create a new measure of collaboration in Congress based on Dear Colleague letters. These letters provide unprecedented insight into the political objectives and coalition strategies of members of Congress that will be of use to scholars studying each of the branches of government. Quantitative analyses are supplemented by interviews with congressional staff to provide a richer perspective on the motivations and strategies of members of Congress. Ultimately, the results of this research will allow us to move beyond the traditional understanding of Congress to account for the relationships that members must maintain within a complex network of the legislature and its audiences and provide a clearer picture of how these relationships affect the policies produced by Congress.