Manufactured Responsiveness
The Impact of State Electoral Laws on Unified Party Control of the Presidency and House of Representatives, 1840–1940
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6231398 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Erik J Engstrom (0000-0003-4869-3590, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Samuel Kernell (University of California San Diego) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 531-549 |
| Publication date | 2005-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2005.00140.x |
| OpenAlex | W2030712166 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 29 |
| References cited | 37 |
The modern history of divided government in America suggests that the framers succeeded in creating a government unresponsive to popular passions. Yet in the nineteenth century the party winning the presidency almost always captured control of the House of Representatives. Why and how could nineteenth century national elections be so responsive that they resemble parliamentary outcomes? We identify electoral institutions present in the states that directly linked congressional elections to presidential coattails. Specifically, we estimate the impact of state ballot laws and the strategic design of congressional districts on presidential coattail voting from 1840 to 1940. We find that presidential elections, as mediated by state electoral laws, strongly account for unified party control of the House and the presidency throughout the nineteenth century
Ballot · Control (management · Divided government · Economics · Electoral college · Government (linguistics · House of Representatives · Management · Passions · Political science · Politics · Presidency · Presidential system · State (computer science · Voting · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Public Administration
Redistricting, Candidate Entry, and the Politics of Nineteenth‐Century U.S. House Elections
Do Quality Candidates and Incumbents Still Matter in the Partisan World? Comparing Trends and Relationship Between Candidate Differentials and Congressional Election Outcomes, 1900–2022
The Impact of Electoral Rules and Reforms on Election Outcomes
The Deinstitutionalization (?) of the House of Representatives
Reevaluating the Vote Market Hypothesis
The South, Slavery, and Competition in Early US House Elections
Redistricting and Party Polarization in the U.S. House of Representatives
Beyond Marble Cakes and Picket Fences
Nationalization and the Incumbency Advantage
Replacement in the U.S. House
Congressional Candidates in the Era of Party Ballots
Life before Congress
The Burden of Election Logistics
Gubernatorial Coattails in Mexican Congressional Elections
Understanding the Party Brand
The Governor' Backyard
Reconciling Legal-Institutional and Behavioral Perspectives on Voter Turnout
Ballot Reform and the Decline of Third Parties in State Legislatures
Reform and Representation
Giving Order to Districts
The adoption of direct primaries in the United States
Electoral Reform and Changes in Legislative Behavior
Distributive politics, the electoral connection, and the antebellum US Congress
Voting Technologies
Examining the Electoral Connection Across Time
The Rise and Decline of Turnout in Congressional Elections
Candidates, Competition, and the Partisan Press
Candidate Quality, the Personal Vote, and the Incumbency Advantage in Congress
Stacking the States, Stacking the House
Critical elections and the mainsprings of American politics.
Elbridge Gerry's Salamander
The American Ballot Box in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
On bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models
Grand Old Party
Nelson W. Polsby. 1968. “The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives.” American Political Science Review 62 (March)
Testing Democracy
Nuisance vs. Substance
The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party
Politics, Presidents and Coattails
Grand Old Party
The Attribution of Variance in Electoral Returns
Nationalization and Partisan Realignment in Congressional Elections
The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives
Nationalization of the American Electorate
The Impact of National Tides and District-Level Effects on Electoral Outcomes
Congress and the Presidency as News in the Nineteenth Century
Time-Series–cross-Sectiondata
Toward Understanding 19th Century Congressional Careers
Presidential Coattails in Historical Perspective
Sectional Differences in Partisan Bias and Electoral Responsiveness in US House Elections, 1850–1980
Life Before Polls
What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data
The Relationship between Seats and Votes in Two-Party Systems
The institutionalization of the good death
Testing Democracy
A Reevaluation of Realignments in American Politics
Seniority in Legislatures
A New Approach to the Study of Ticket Splitting
The Effect of the Australian Ballot Reform on Split Ticket Voting
The Motivational Basis of Straight and Split Ticket Voting
Democratic Representation and Partisan Bias in Congressional Elections
The Concept of a Critical Realignment, Electoral Behavior, and Political Change
Careerism, Committee Assignments, and the Electoral Connection
| Unique citing works | 29 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,38 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2024 (20) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 29 |