Please contact me at lee.hannah@psu.edu for original files.

1. DAY 13 – HOME
STYLES AND HILL
STYLES (CONT‟D)
July 16, 2013

2. Reading for Monday
 Read all of Chapter 5 in DOL
 DO NOT READ Fenno (1977) article

3. Hill Styles
 Who are the legislators?
 How do they compare to general population in terms of:
 Education
 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/06/12/us/across-the-board-growth-in-
college-degrees.html?ref=education&_r=1&
 Occupation
 How has this trend changed recently?
 Race
 Gender
 Sexual Orientation
 Religion
 What is the fastest-growing category in recent surveys?
 Age
 Tenure
 How does Congress rank in terms of descriptive representation?
 What is collective representation?

4. Congressional Roles
 Legislator
 Crafting, shaping, debating on laws.
 Shaped by norms and seniority
 Constituency Servant
 Individual contact with members
 Procuring pork-barrel projects for entire constituencies
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/immigration-deal-
would-boost-defense-manufacturers/2013/07/01/d1c115e4-
df63-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html
 “Byrd Droppings” -
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/04/us/how-do-west-
virginians-spell-pork-it-s-b-y-r-d.html
 Citizens Against Government Waste - http://cagw.org/
 Partisan

5. “Constituency
Servant” or
“Partisan”?
What does
this graph
suggest?
Source: Sides,
“Gerrymandering is not
what‟s wrong with American
politics”

6. “Traditionally, representation has been treated
mostly as a structural relationship in which the
congruence between the policy preferences of the
represented and the policy decisions of the
representative is the measure of good
representation. The question we normally ask is
„How well does Representative X represent his or
her district?‟ And we answer the question by
matching and calibrating substantive policy
agreement. But our view here is that there is
an intertwining question: “How does
Representative X carry his or her district?”
 Richard Fenno, 1977, “U.S. House Member in Their
Constituencies”

7. Fenno. “U.S. House Member in
Their Constituencies: An
Exploration”
 Asks two central questions related to
representative-constituency linkage
 What does an elective representative see when
he or she sees a constituency?
 What consequences do these perceptions have
for his or her behavior?

8. Types of Constituencies
 Geographic and Demographic constituencies
 Homogenous vs. Heterogeneous constituencies
 Political and personal constituencies
 Supporters
 The reelection constituency
 Loyalists
 The primary constituency
 Intimates
 The personal constituency

9. Members and the Media
 Direct Mail
 Local media
 Most favorable coverage of Congressmen
 Limited resources give legislators more opportunities
to control the message and set the agenda.
 Example: Glenn Thompson local coverage
 WJAC – TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Rr9C46n6w
 WTAJ - TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alTE0OwBU8s
 Jet24 Erie -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU1SKAYi_0I
 Study found that 6% of local news stories are critical.