Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Issue Politics in Congress
- 1 Electoral Challenges and Legislative Responsiveness
- 2 A Theory of Issue Uptake
- 3 The Nature of Campaign and Legislative Agendas
- 4 Assessing Uptake
- 5 Who Responds? Explaining Individual Variation in Uptake
- 6 Patterns of Responsiveness in Congress
- 7 The Electoral Impacts of Uptake
- 8 Uptake and Public Policy
- 9 Elections, Governance, and Representation
- Appendix: House and Senate Samples
- References
- Index
4 - Assessing Uptake
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Issue Politics in Congress
- 1 Electoral Challenges and Legislative Responsiveness
- 2 A Theory of Issue Uptake
- 3 The Nature of Campaign and Legislative Agendas
- 4 Assessing Uptake
- 5 Who Responds? Explaining Individual Variation in Uptake
- 6 Patterns of Responsiveness in Congress
- 7 The Electoral Impacts of Uptake
- 8 Uptake and Public Policy
- 9 Elections, Governance, and Representation
- Appendix: House and Senate Samples
- References
- Index
Summary
The previous chapters have established the general theoretical underpinnings of uptake. I have shown that challengers generally discuss distinct issues in their campaigns, that legislators enjoy considerable discretion in choosing their issue agendas, and that reelection considerations provide winning legislators with clear incentives to take up their challengers' themes and act on them in office. With these pieces of the puzzle in place, it is now possible to assess uptake, exploring its dynamics across individuals, across activities, across chambers, and across time. I begin this process in this chapter by addressing three fundamental questions. First, how should uptake be measured? Second, how much does the average legislator exhibit and how much variation exists across individuals? Finally, what factors need to be taken into account to explain this variation and draw reliable conclusions about relative responsiveness?
As a point of departure, it is useful to focus on the behavior of a single legislator. As such, I once again consider the situation faced by Senator Bob Graham. Graham's 1992 election challenger, Bill Grant, highlighted health care, economic issues, and the need for a balanced budget in his campaign. Graham subsequently responded by performing a number of activities on these issues, many more than he had in his previous term. To illustrate my approach to investigating uptake, I begin by identifying more precisely how much uptake Graham's behavior reflects and determining whether his raw level is high, low, or about average compared to those of his peers.
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- Information
- Issue Politics in Congress , pp. 71 - 88Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005