The Effect of Race and Ethnicity on Bill Sponsorship and Cosponsorship in Congress
The Effect of Race and Ethnicity on Bill Sponsorship and Cosponsorship in Congress
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种族和民族对国会法案提案和共同提案的影响
DOI：
10.1177/1532673x07306357
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发表时间：
2008
影响因子：
1.5
通讯作者：
Gabriel R. Sanchez
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Michael S. Rocca;Gabriel R. Sanchez
本文探讨了黑人和拉丁裔立法者在国会中对法案赞助和共同赞助的使用情况。正如我们所解释的，发起和共同发起立法的独特之处在于，它们是点名领域之外为数不多的既具有立场又具有政策影响的活动之一。我们假设，鉴于少数族裔立法者在国会缺乏影响力，他们发起和共同发起的法案比非少数族裔少。我们找到了对我们期望的支持；平均而言，黑人和拉丁裔立法者在国会发起和共同发起的法案分别明显少于白人和非拉丁裔议员。但我们也发现这种关系取决于哪个政党控制国会。民主党国会鼓励少数族裔的法案赞助和共同发起，而共和党国会则压制这种做法。由于国会参与和代表权的概念彼此密切相关，因此这些发现对于描述性代表权和实质性代表权的研究具有许多意义。
This article examines Black and Latino legislators' use of bill sponsorship and cosponsorship in Congress. As we explain, sponsoring and cosponsoring legislation are unique in that they are among the few activities outside the roll call arena that have both position taking and policy implications. We hypothesize that given minority legislators' lack of influence in Congress, they sponsor and cosponsor fewer bills than do nonminorities. We find support for our expectation; on average, Black and Latino legislators sponsor and cosponsor significantly fewer bills in Congress than do Whites and non-Latinos, respectively. But we also find the relationship to be contingent on which party controls Congress. Whereas Democratic Congresses encourage minorities' bill sponsorship and cosponsorship, Republican Congresses depress it. Because the concepts of participation and representation in Congress are so intimately tied to one another, these findings have a number of implications for the study of descriptive and substantive representation.