Delegate Voting at the Constitutional Convention

制宪会议代表投票

• 批准号: 0752098
• 负责人: Keith Dougherty
• 金额: $ 20.5万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-03-15 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0752098&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Delegate; Voting; Constitutional; Convention

PI and Co-PI: Keith L. Dougherty and Jac C. HeckelmanTitle: Delegate Voting at the Constitutional Convention 0752098Project AbstractThis research project will use primary source information to recover delegate votes from the Constitutional Convention. The goal of the project is to infer the positions of delegates on more than 400 substantive votes using the statements they made in debate and the formal rule that a majority of the delegates from a state determined the state's vote. The investigators will then estimate ideal points for each delegate using a procedure that is robust to missing data. These estimates will be used to test three hypotheses. First, the estimates will be used to test the validity of the Beard thesis to determine whether delegates were influenced by their economic interests or whether they were more impartial participants. Second, the estimates will be used to determine whether the Great Compromise altered delegate preferences. Testing for stability of preferences will help to determine the importance of this historical event for the strengthening of the national government. Finally, the spatial estimates will be used to test questions about the stability of preferences of a few key delegates, who allegedly changed their positions because they were persuaded by others. The results have important implications for theories of representation (principle-agent theories), economic theories about the formation of institutions, and legal interpretations of original intent. The project will introduce several undergraduates to the methods of professional research. It also will be used as a springboard for research supported by the Student Undergraduate Research Program, which brings gifted minority students to the University of Georgia. Inferred votes will be archived for use by other scholars. Results will be presented at several conferences and published in a series of academic journals. They will also be used to develop a course on the methods of American political development at the University of Georgia and to supplement a new course on the Theory of Social Choice at Wake Forest University.

PI 和 Co-PI：Keith L. Dougherty 和 Jac C. Heckelman 标题：制宪会议代表投票 0752098 项目摘要 本研究项目将使用主要来源信息来恢复制宪会议代表投票。 该项目的目标是利用代表们在辩论中的发言以及州的多数代表决定该州投票的正式规则，推断代表们在 400 多张实质性投票中的立场。 然后，研究人员将使用对缺失数据稳健的程序来估计每位代表的理想点。这些估计将用于检验三个假设。 首先，这些估计将用于测试比尔德论文的有效性，以确定代表们是否受到经济利益的影响，或者他们是否是更公正的参与者。其次，这些估计将用于确定大妥协是否改变了代表的偏好。测试偏好的稳定性将有助于确定这一历史事件对于加强国家政府的重要性。 最后，空间估计将用于测试有关一些关键代表偏好稳定性的问题，据称这些代表因为被其他人说服而改变了立场。 研究结果对代表理论（委托代理理论）、制度形成的经济理论以及初衷的法律解释具有重要意义。 该项目将向几名本科生介绍专业研究的方法。它还将用作学生本科生研究计划支持的研究的跳板，该计划将有天赋的少数族裔学生带到佐治亚大学。 推断的投票将被存档以供其他学者使用。研究结果将在多个会议上公布并发表在一系列学术期刊上。 它们还将用于在佐治亚大学开发一门关于美国政治发展方法的课程，并补充维克森林大学关于社会选择理论的新课程。