Position Taking and Position Avoidance in the U.S. Senate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7410683 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David R Jones (0000-0001-8028-7571, City University of New York, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 851-863 |
| Publication date | 2003-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-2508.00215 |
| OpenAlex | W2152328723 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 37 |
| References cited | 15 |
Why do some legislators take fewer positions on roll-call votes than others? Do these omissions occur by chance, or is it possible that certain legislators avoid taking positions intentionally? This study analyzes whether differential electoral considerations affect the level of position taking among legislators. In particular, it examines whether electoral considerations may actually lead some legislators to avoid taking positions on roll-call votes in an effort to conceal their issue preferences from constituents. Based on U.S. Senate data from the years 1979 to 1996, the results suggest that unwillingness to take positions on roll-call votes is not random. Instead, it is significantly related to factors such as diversity of constituents' opinions, pursuit of higher office, electoral marginality, retirement decisions, and visibility within the institution
Affect (linguistics · Differential (mechanical device · Diversity (politics · Economics · Geography · Institution · Law and economics · Political science · Position (finance · Roll call · Sociology · Visibility · Voting · Communication · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Engineering · Finance · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Gender Politics and Representation · Law
Voting Present
Constitutional Amendment Proposals as Position-Taking Activity in the U.S. House of Representatives (1979–2020)
Money, Reputation, and Incumbency in U.S. House Elections, or Why Marginals Have Become More Expensive
Sanctuary Cities
Who challenges disparities in capital punishment
NeverTrump
Immigrant detention be banned? Constituent, subconstituent, and elite influence over House Democrat's decision to cosponsor the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act
Who Promotes Protection? Economic and Electoral Influences on Trade-Related Position Taking in the Senate
Incentives for non-participation
Balancing constituency representation and party responsiveness in the US Senate
Does democracy “suffer” from diversity? Issue representation and diversity in senate elections
Abstentions and Social Networks in Congress
Is Mr. Smith Afraid to Leave Washington? Congressional District Gun Homicides and Legislator Absenteeism
Ideological Polarization and the Vanishing of Marginals
Competing Principals and Non-Vote Decisions in the European Parliament
Legislative Participation in the EU
Institutional Arrangements and Logrolling
Too cool for school
Timing Their Positions
Geography, Uncertainty, and Polarization
Why do Legislators Skip Votes? Position Taking Versus Policy Influence
Position Taking on the President’s Agenda
The Effect of Political Competition on Democratic Accountability
The Influence of Unobserved Factors on Position Timing and Content in the Nafta Vote
Sustained Organizational Influence
Measuring Aggregate‐Level Ideological Heterogeneity
Electoral Reform and Changes in Legislative Behavior
The Effects of Uncontested Elections on Legislator Performance
The Strategic Timing behind Position-taking in the US Congress
Re-election
Using Roll Call Estimates to Test Models of Politics
Signaling through Obstruction
The Two Faces of Party Ambiguity
After Cloture
Time to Wake Up
Efficiency, Equity, and Timing of Voting Mechanisms
A Court as a Means of Legislative Position Avoidance
Congressmen's Voting Decisions
Home Style
An economic theory of democracy
Congress, The Electoral Connection
Congress
Variance Specification in Event Count Models
Issue avoidance
The Marginals Never Vanished
Political Correlates of Social, Economic, and Religious Diversity in the American States
How to vote, whether to vote
The Influence of Constituency Diversity on Electoral Competition in Voting for Congress, 1974-1978
Constituency Influence in Congress
Severing the Electoral Connection
Constituency Influence in Congress
| Unique citing works | 37 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,85 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 36 |