Goal
The goal of this exercise is to examine state legislators' perceptions about their districts and the complex relationship between constituent preferences and the legislator's role as representative. Crosstabulations, bar charts, and frequencies will be used.
Concept
Similar to members of the United States Congress, a state legislator's primary responsibility is to the residents in the district he or she represents. However, representatives work within a larger decision-making body, and must think about the good of the district, the good of the state, or some combination of both when writing laws. Representatives are also subject to the influence of political parties, congressional leadership, and other legislators.
One way in which legislators may represent their districts is through sociological representation. This type of representation occurs when representatives have the same educational, ethnic, gender, racial, or religious background as their constituents. Under sociological representation, shared characteristics are assumed to make the legislator similar to, and therefore representative of, the needs of the constituency.
In agency representation, representatives may not share the same background characteristics as their constituents, but they are expected to act in the best interests of those they represent. The representative is held accountable to his/her constituents through the electoral process-legislators who do not appear to represent the best interests of their constituents may find it difficult to be re-elected.
Legislators must find a balance between constituent interest and party influences. When faced with conflicts among their constituents, legislators often side with those that align with their party. For example, if local businesses and labor unions were to be in a dispute, we might expect a Republican legislator to side with business and a Democratic legislator to side with labor, given the history of party behavior.
Examples of possible research questions about state legislators and representation:
How do legislators balance the demands of their district with the welfare of the state as a whole?
Which political party is more responsive to constituent preferences?
How do state legislators stay informed about constituent preferences?
Are state legislator perceptions about their districts accurate?
Data for this analysis come from the 2002 State Legislative Survey. Questionnaires were mailed to all 7,430 state legislators (50 states, 99 chambers) in February 2002. State legislators were surveyed on whether respondents followed their conscience or the wishes of their constituency when making decisions, the political views of their constituency, and which groups they considered to be their strongest supporters. Information was also collected on opposition candidates, vote percentages, campaign expenditures, previously held public and appointed offices, and future political aspirations. Demographic information includes sex, race, household income, religious preference, political party affiliation, and political philosophy.
This exercise will use the following variables:
Needs of the District versus Needs of the State
Variable Z13 provides legislators' responses to the following question: "Do you feel you should be primarily concerned with the needs of your district or the needs of the state as a whole?" Responses ranged on a scale from 1 ("District") to 7 ("State as a whole").
Look at the frequency distribution of
Legislative Perspectives: Sociological Representation
In variables Z20_1 through Z20_12, state legislators were asked whether they felt each of several groups were among their strongest supporters. You will use crosstabulations to determine if there is a relationship between legislator membership in a particular group and perceptions about the support of that group.
First, consider how state legislators perceive the support of racial groups in their districts,
based on their own race. State legislators indicated their own racial background as 'White,'
'Black,' or 'Other' (Z28). Run a crosstab of
Now consider whether legislators' religious beliefs are related to their perception about the
support of the Christian Coalition. In variable Z30_1, legislators indicated their own religious
group affiliation as 'Roman Catholic,' 'Jewish,' 'Mainline Protestant,' 'Fundamentalist Christian,'
'None,' or 'Other.' Run a crosstab of
Next think about the ways in which a state legislator's
Legislative Perspectives: Agency Representation
In variable Z14, state legislators were asked to place themselves on a 7-point scale based on
this question: "When there is a conflict between what you think is best and what the people want -
Conscience or District?" Responses ranged from '1= Always District' to '7=Always Conscience.' Look
at the frequency distribution of
Party Influences
State legislators were asked whether Labor/Unions and Business were among their strongest
supporters. Consider whether legislators' perceptions of support from these groups differ based on
their political party membership. Are Democratic state legislators more likely than Republican
legislators to regard
Are Republican state legislators more likely than Democratic legislators to regard
Think about your answers to the application questions before you click through to the interpretation guide for help in answering them.
Legislating: District vs. State
What is the most frequent (modal) response that the legislators gave when placing themselves on this scale? What does this tell us about how state legislators perceive their responsibility to represent their districts? What percentage of legislators said they were concerned with the needs of the district only? What percentage said they were concerned with the needs of the state as a whole?
Legislative Perspectives: Sociological Representation
What percentage of White legislators regard African Americans as among their strongest supporters? What percentage of Black legislators regard African Americans as among their strongest supporters? What does this suggest about sociological representation?
Which religious group members were less likely to view the Christian Coalition as among their strong supporters? Which group members were more likely to view the Christian Coalition as among their strong supporters?
Are female state legislators more likely than male legislators to view Women's Groups as among their strongest supporters? Is it helpful to look at the bar chart to see the differences? What does this tell us about sociological representation?
Legislative Perspectives: Agency Representation
Do most of the state legislators tend to place themselves toward the "district" or "conscience" end of this scale? What percentage of state legislators responded that they always think of the district when there is a conflict?' What percentage responded that they always use their conscience when there is a conflict? Given that the rationale behind agency representation is to represent the constituents, is this surprising?
Party Influences
Are Democratic state legislators more likely than Republican legislators to regard Labor/Unions among their strongest supporters? Does it help to look at the bar chart? What does this suggest about the way these legislators may respond to an issue about Labor/Unions in their district?
Are Republican state legislators more likely than Democratic legislators to regard Business among their strongest supporters? What does this suggest about the way these legislators may respond to an issue related to Business in their district?
Interpretation
Things to think about in interpreting the results:
It is important to look at the amount of missing data in each relationship and think about the ways in which that might affect the generalizability of the results.
In general, it's also important to look at the response rate. A low response rate may affect the generalizability. This survey had a response rate of only 40%.
Weights (mathematical formulas) are often used to adjust the sample proportions, usually by race, sex, or age, to more closely match those of the general population. The analyses in this guide used weights to increase the generalizability of the findings, so the resulting tables are meant to reflect the relationships we would expect to see in the general population.
Reading the results:
The numbers in each cell of the crosstabulation tables show the percent of the people who fall into the overlapping categories, followed by the actual number of people that represents in this sample. The coloring in the tables demonstrates how the observed numbers in each cell compares to the expected number if there were no association between the two variables. The accompanying bar and pie charts display the patterns visually as well.
The use of column percentages, as shown in these tables, allows for the comparison of answers to the "outcome" of interest across values of the grouping variable. For example, 17.5% of the state legislators placed themselves at 4 in response to the question: "When there is a conflict between what you think is best and what the people want - Conscience or District?"
Weights (mathematical formulas) are often used to adjust the sample proportions, usually by race, sex, or age, to more closely match those of the general population. The analyses in this guide used weights to increase the generalizability of the findings, so the resulting tables are meant to reflect the relationships we would expect to see in the general population.
The analyses show the following:
About a quarter (25.8%) of the legislators placed themselves at "4," indicating that they try to balance the needs of the district and the state as a whole. Only 7.4% of the state legislators said they were primarily concerned with the needs of the district with little or no regard for the needs of the state, while 6.9% said they were only concerned with the needs of the state as a whole with little or no regard for the district.
17.4% of White legislators regard African Americans as among their strongest supporters, compared with 91.3% of Black legislators. Given that a majority of White legislators do not count African Americans among their strongest supporters while a majority of Black legislators do, it seems that on the dimension of race, Black state legislators may feel they can represent African American constituents well using the sociological representation approach.
Legislators who identified themselves as Fundamentalist Christians do regard the Christian Coalition as among their strong supporters (62.8%). Only 17.7% Roman Catholic legislators and 1.1% of Jewish legislators felt this way about the Christian Coalition. A majority of Mainline Protestant legislators do not regard the Christian Coalition as among their strong supporters.
Female state legislators are much more likely to view Women's Groups among their strongest supporters. 66.8% of female legislators listed Women's Groups as their strongest supporters, compared to 25.2% of male legislators. The bar charts graphically demonstrate how differently male and female state legislators responded to this question. Given that a majority of male legislators do not count Women's Groups as among their strongest supporters, while a majority of female legislators do, it seems that on the dimension of gender, female legislators may feel they can represent women constituents well using the sociological representation approach.
In questions of district versus conscience, most state legislators placed themselves toward the conscience end of the scale with 58% answering "5" or higher. 4.7% of the state legislators said they always think about the district. 10% of the state legislators said they always use their conscience. This outcome is surprising given that this model of representation suggests that if the state legislators want to be re-elected, they should look to the district when there is a conflict. However, this data indicate the exact opposite: many of the legislators rely on their own consciences instead.
Democratic state legislators were more likely than Republican legislators to regard Labor/Unions as among their strongest supporters. 75.5% of them said yes, compared to the 9.1% of Republican state legislators. The relationship is easy to see in the bar chart. In the event that a dispute arose regarding Labor/Unions, this data suggests that Democratic state legislators might try to respond in a way that benefited Labor/Unions, while Republicans would be less likely to respond in such a manner.
Republican state legislators were more likely to regard Business as among their strongest supporters. 90.9% of them said yes, compared to the 42.2% of Democratic state legislators. The relationship is very easy to see in the bar chart. Although it is not quite as sharp of a divide as with the Labor/Unions support, it is still clear that there is a difference based on legislator partisanship. In the event that a dispute arose regarding Business, this data suggest that Republican state legislators would be more likely than Democrats to respond in a way that benefited business interests.
Summary
When state legislators legislate, the majority thinks about the interests of both the state as a whole and the district. Although most textbooks cite two distinct types of representation styles that legislators employ, sociological and agency, the data presented in this guide indicate that legislators often rely on both types to serve their districts. In the event that there is a conflict between what the people want and what the legislator thinks is best, a majority of the legislators in this survey rely on their own conscience. With respect to various interest groups, there was a clear partisan divide as to which party viewed the various interest groups as strong supporters. Although the data do not allow for a test of the accuracy of these perceptions, one could make educated guesses about how legislators would vote on legislation based on these perceptions. It is important to remember that though there appear to be many relationships between variables in this exercise, we cannot determine that any variable caused another.