Congress The Press And Political Accountability

Author : R. Douglas Arnold
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400849586
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability written by R. Douglas Arnold and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability is the first large-scale examination of how local media outlets cover members of the United States Congress. Douglas Arnold asks: do local newspapers provide the information citizens need in order to hold representatives accountable for their actions in office? In contrast with previous studies, which largely focused on the campaign period, he tests various hypotheses about the causes and consequences of media coverage by exploring coverage during an entire congressional session. Using three samples of local newspapers from across the country, Arnold analyzes all coverage over a two-year period--every news story, editorial, opinion column, letter, and list. First he investigates how twenty-five newspapers covered twenty-five local representatives; and next, how competing newspapers in six cities covered their corresponding legislators. Examination of an even larger sample, sixty-seven newspapers and 187 representatives, shows why some newspapers cover legislators more thoroughly than do other papers. Arnold then links the coverage data with a large public opinion survey to show that the volume of coverage affects citizens' awareness of representatives and challengers. The results show enormous variation in coverage. Some newspapers cover legislators frequently, thoroughly, and accessibly. Others--some of them famous for their national coverage--largely ignore local representatives. The analysis also confirms that only those incumbents or challengers in the most competitive races, and those who command huge sums of money, receive extensive coverage.

Author : Charles M. Cameron
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1009197967
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Accountability Reconsidered written by Charles M. Cameron and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last two decades have witnessed a substantial change in the media environment, growing polarization of the two dominant parties, and increasing inequality of wealth and income. These profound changes necessitate updating our understanding of political accountability. Accountability Reconsidered examines how political accountability functions in the US today given the dramatic changes in voting behavior, media, congressional dynamics, and relations between branches. With particular attention to policymaking, this volume uses original research to analyze micro-foundations of voter behavior, examining its implications for incentives and offering insight into the accountability relationships among voters, interest groups, legislators, and government bureaucracy. Combining contributions from leading experts who write about the political system synoptically with those who focus on specific elements, Accountability Reconsidered brings together distinct perspectives to focus on the effect of the informational environment on government officials, bridging up-to-date knowledge about accountability mechanisms with our overall understanding of political accountability.

Author : Vincent L. Hutchings
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691123799
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Public Opinion and Democratic Accountability written by Vincent L. Hutchings and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-11 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of public opinion research over the past several decades suggests that the American voters are woefully uninformed about politics and thus unable to fulfill their democratic obligations. Arguing that this perception is faulty, Vincent Hutchings shows that, under the right political conditions, voters are surprisingly well informed on the issues that they care about and use their knowledge to hold politicians accountable. Though Hutchings is not the first political scientist to contend that the American public is more politically engaged than it is often given credit for, previous scholarship--which has typically examined individual and environmental factors in isolation--has produced only limited evidence of an attentive electorate. Analyzing broad survey data as well as the content of numerous Senate and gubernatorial campaigns involving such issues as race, labor, abortion, and defense, Hutchings demonstrates that voters are politically engaged when politicians and the media discuss the issues that the voters perceive as important. Hutchings finds that the media--while far from ideal--do provide the populace with information regarding the responsiveness of elected representatives and that groups of voters do monitor this information when "their" issues receive attention. Thus, while the electorate may be generally uninformed about and uninterested in public policy, a complex interaction of individual motivation, group identification, and political circumstance leads citizens concerned about particular issues to obtain knowledge about their political leaders and use that information at the ballot box.

Author : R. Douglas Arnold
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300056594
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Logic of Congressional Action written by R. Douglas Arnold and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress regularly enacts laws that benefit particular groups or localities while imposing costs on everyone else. Sometimes, however, Congress breaks free of such parochial concerns and enacts bills that serve the general public, not just special interest groups. In this important and original book, R. Douglas Arnold offers a theory that explains not only why special interests frequently triumph but also why the general public sometimes wins. By showing how legislative leaders build coalitions for both types of programs, he illuminates recent legislative decisions in such areas as economic, tax, and energy policy. Arnold's theory of policy making rests on a reinterpretation of the relationship between legislators' actions and their constituents' policy preferences. Most scholars explore the impact that citizens' existing policy preferences have on legislators' decisions. They ignore citizens who have no opinions because they assume that uninformed citizens cannot possibly affect legislators' choices. Arnold examines the influence of citizens' potential preferences, however, and argues that legislators also respond to these preferences in order to avoid future electoral problems. He shows how legislators estimate the political consequences of their voting decisions, taking into account both the existing preferences of attentive citizens and the potential preferences of inattentive citizens. He then analyzes how coalition leaders manipulate the legislative situation in order to make it attractive for legislators to support a general interest bill.

Author : United States. Congress
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1084 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 1084 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : John M. Carey
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139476793
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Legislative Voting and Accountability written by John M. Carey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legislatures are the core representative institutions in modern democracies. Citizens want legislatures to be decisive, and they want accountability, but they are frequently disillusioned with the representation legislators deliver. Political parties can provide decisiveness in legislatures, and they may provide collective accountability, but citizens and political reformers frequently demand another type of accountability from legislators – at the individual level. Can legislatures provide both kinds of accountability? This book considers what collective and individual accountability require and provides the most extensive cross-national analysis of legislative voting undertaken to date. It illustrates the balance between individualistic and collective representation in democracies, and how party unity in legislative voting shapes that balance. In addition to quantitative analysis of voting patterns, the book draws on extensive field and archival research to provide an extensive assessment of legislative transparency throughout the Americas.

Author : Walter J. Oleszek
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
ISBN 13 : 143793059X
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Congressional Oversight written by Walter J. Oleszek and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. A fundamental objective of congressional oversight (CO) is to hold exec. officials accountable for the implementation of delegated authority. This objective is especially important given the huge expansion of executive influence in the modern era. Clearly, given the role and scope of the fed. establishment, the importance of Congress¿s review function looms large in checking and monitoring the delegated authority that it grants to fed. departments and agencies. This report: (1) highlights several reasons for the expansion of the fed. gov¿t.; (2) discusses a few definitions of CO; (3) spotlights 3 purposes of oversight; (4) comments upon CO laws and rules; (5) reviews CO techniques; and (6) identifies incentives and disincentives to CO. Illus.

Author : Justin Grimmer
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069116262X
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Impression of Influence written by Justin Grimmer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-23 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constituents often fail to hold their representatives accountable for federal spending decisions—even though those very choices have a pervasive influence on American life. Why does this happen? Breaking new ground in the study of representation, The Impression of Influence demonstrates how legislators skillfully inform constituents with strategic communication and how this facilitates or undermines accountability. Using a massive collection of Congressional texts and innovative experiments and methods, the book shows how legislators create an impression of influence through credit claiming messages. Anticipating constituents' reactions, legislators claim credit for programs that elicit a positive response, making constituents believe their legislator is effectively representing their district. This spurs legislators to create and defend projects popular with their constituents. Yet legislators claim credit for much more—they announce projects long before they begin, deceptively imply they deserve credit for expenditures they had little role in securing, and boast about minuscule projects. Unfortunately, legislators get away with seeking credit broadly because constituents evaluate the actions that are reported, rather than the size of the expenditures. The Impression of Influence raises critical questions about how citizens hold their political representatives accountable and when deception is allowable in a democracy.

Author : Paul Charles Light
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815752554
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Monitoring Government written by Paul Charles Light and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers the first systematic evaluation of the offices of inspector general (OIG) and examines the government-wide investment in the OIGs concept. Despite their increasingly prominent, often controversial, role in the internal oversight of government, very little is known about their institutional or operational problems.

Author : Sean Gailmard
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226924408
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Learning While Governing written by Sean Gailmard and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sean Gailmard is the Judith E. Gruber Associate Professor in the Travers Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. John W. Patty is associate professor of political science at Washington University.