Collaborative Research: Legislative Audiences and Dear Colleague Letters

民主代表制是基于这样一种理想，即当选的领导人代表选民的价值观。 这一观点在很大程度上影响了对国会的研究，即把国会看作是一群关心自己选举命运的独立议员，但它没有考虑到议员们必须与选民以外的竞争性受众保持的关系。 该项目通过研究国会议员如何平衡六个不同受众的期望来推进我们对国会行为的理解：选民，政党，同事，贡献者，利益集团和媒体。 将国会视为立法机构及其受众的更大网络的一部分，可以更全面地了解成员的行为，更好地反映21世纪世纪国会的现实，同时也解决了利益集团和国会的多元化和精英主义观点。 通过创建一个新的政策合作措施和国会通信的数据集，该项目提供了新的见解成员之间的关系，与利益集团，以及他们如何在当代立法机构的限制范围内设定优先事项。 这项研究的结果将提供一个更全面的了解如何内部和外部的立法环境的关系影响政策的结果，立法机构的运作，以及我们对民主代表制的理解。该项目提供了一个新的理论解释立法行为的基础上，立法成员必须安抚的观众和他们采取的行动，这样做。 我们解决国会议员如何利用利益集团来推进自己的议程，成员如何从与同事的合作中受益，以及成员如何选择优先考虑和促进不同类型的立法等重要问题。 PI应用文本分析和网络方法的最新创新，根据亲爱的同事的信件在国会创建一个新的合作措施。这些信件为国会议员的政治目标和联盟战略提供了前所未有的洞察力，这将对研究政府各个部门的学者有用。 定量分析的补充与国会工作人员的访谈，以提供国会议员的动机和战略更丰富的视角。 最终，这项研究的结果将使我们超越传统的理解国会占的关系，成员必须保持在一个复杂的网络的立法机构及其观众，并提供这些关系如何影响国会制定的政策更清晰的画面。

General Summary Democratic representation is based on the ideal that elected leaders represent the values of the electorate. This view has informed much of the study of Congress as a collection of independent members concerned with their electoral fortunes, yet it does not account for the relationships that members must maintain with competing audiences beyond the voters. This project advances our understanding of congressional behavior by examining how members of Congress balance the expectations of six distinctive audiences: voters, parties, colleagues, contributors, interest groups, and the media. Viewing Congress as part of a larger network of the legislature and its audiences leads to a fuller understanding of the behavior of members that better reflects the realities of the 21st century Congress, while also addressing pluralist and elitist perspectives on interest groups and Congress. Through the creation of a new measure of policy collaboration and a data set of congressional communications, this project provides new insights into the relationships between members, with interest groups, and how they set priorities within the constraints of the contemporary legislature. The results of this research will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how relationships inside and outside of the legislative environment affect policy outcomes, the functioning of the legislature, and our understanding of democratic representation. Technical Summary This project offers a new theoretical explanation of legislative behavior based on the audiences that members of legislature must appease and the actions that they take to do so. We address important questions of how members of Congress use interest groups to advance their own agenda, how members benefit from collaboration with their colleagues, and how members choose to prioritize and promote different types of legislation. The PIs apply recent innovations in text analysis and network methods to create a new measure of collaboration in Congress based on Dear Colleague letters. These letters provide unprecedented insight into the political objectives and coalition strategies of members of Congress that will be of use to scholars studying each of the branches of government. Quantitative analyses are supplemented by interviews with congressional staff to provide a richer perspective on the motivations and strategies of members of Congress. Ultimately, the results of this research will allow us to move beyond the traditional understanding of Congress to account for the relationships that members must maintain within a complex network of the legislature and its audiences and provide a clearer picture of how these relationships affect the policies produced by Congress.