Unit 4: Institutions Influences on Members of Congress

1. Constituent conviction- if a member votes according to these, they are said to act in the delegate role and engage in representational voting 2. Members’ own convictions- if a member votes according to these, they are said to act in the trustee role and engage in attitudinal voting

3. Other members of Congress, i.e. party leaders, committee leaders, state delegations, other members with a similar ideology (i.e. conservative coalition of Republicans or Southern Democrats, “blue dog” Democrats in House), other members with similar districts. If a member votes according to these, he/she is said to engage in organizational voting. Reciprocity  (exchange of favors) logrolling  (exchange of votes) among members

4. Congressional staff members. As society has grown more complex, and Congress has taken on more responsibilities, Cong has needed to add staff to deal with these realities. Staff can influence by:

5. Interest Groups/lobbies/PACs influence 6. Congressional caucuses  black caucus, Hispanic caucus, blue collar caucus, women’s caucus 7. The Pres can reward or punish members, particularly those within his own party

8. Campaign contributors- Assumption is that $ would be big influence  studies show the campaign contributions does not affect their voting behavior significantly  if it does, only for narrow not well known issues 9. The media  “watchdog” role

10. Iron triangles (cong. committee, related federal agency, and impacted interest groups)  Ex: issue- Airline travel rules on using electronic devices during take off and landing

11. Party membership of members  best predictor of congressional voting  party affiliation strong influence in economic and social welfare issues  less influence on foreign policy and civil liberty issues

Lecture DQs 1. Identify and discuss 3 influences on members of Congress 2. Explain how 1 one of the influences mentioned above can hurt a member of Congress politically