Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Multidimensional Democracy: The Supply and Demand of Political Representation

这项研究的核心思想价值在于更好地理解了美国民主的基石：政治代表。学者们对代表性进行了几十年的研究，但过去的工作通常是从狭隘的角度研究这一概念的。文献确定了代表性的四个维度或组成部分：(1)政策，或选民意见对投票行为的影响；(2)服务，涉及对选民的个人援助；(3)分配，或确保地区项目的资金；(4)象征性，表示与身份特征的联系。虽然这些工作提供了一个全面的代表性观点，但大多数个人研究只关注一个组成部分，从而忽略了过程的重要元素。此外，过去的研究大多集中在精英的行为上。关于公民对代表制组成部分的偏好，我们所知甚少。本研究利用三种原始数据来源来发展一种代表的供需理论，该理论统一了这四个维度，并解释了精英的优先事项（供应）和公民的需求。首先，研究者通过对州议员的调查实验和州议员网站的新档案来检查代表的供应。这两个数据源用于评估代表在与选民交互时如何优先考虑表示的组成部分。其次，该研究还通过对美国成年人样本的调查实验来检验公民对代表的需求。初步结果显示，需求是由公民期望政府如何在他们的生活中发挥作用所驱动的。这项研究将产生几个更广泛的影响。调查完成后，这三个数据集将向公众提供（调查采用匿名形式）。这个项目还具有社会价值，因为它将为讨论美国代表的质量提供信息。

The central intellectual merit of this study is in providing a better understanding of the cornerstone of American democracy: political representation. Scholars have devoted several decades of research to representation, but past work typically studied the concept froma narrow perspective. The literature indentifies four dimensions, or components, of representation: (1) policy, or the influence of constituent opinion on voting behavior, (2) service, which involves individual assistance to constituents, (3) allocation, or the securing of funding for districts projects, and (4) symbolic, which denotes a connection from identity traits. Although this work collectively provides a comprehensive view of representation, most individual studies only focus on one component, and thus omit important elements of the process. Furthermore, most past research focuses on the behavior of elites. Less is known about citizens' preferences for the components of representation. This research utilizes three sources of original data to develop a supply-and-demand theory of representation that unifies those four dimensions and accounts for both elites' priorities (supply) and citizen demand.First, the investigator examines the supply of representation through survey experiments administered to state legislators and with a new archive of state legislators' websites. Both data sources are used to assess how representatives prioritize the components of representation when interacting with constituents. Second, the study also examines citizen demand for representation through survey experiments administered to a sample of American adults. Preliminary results show that demand is driven by how citizens expect government to play a role in their lives.This research will have several broader impacts. Upon completion, the three datasets will be made publicly available (the surveys in anonymous form). This project also has social value because it will inform discussions of the quality of representation in America.