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

这项研究的核心学术价值在于更好地理解了美国民主的基石：政治代表权。学者们对表征进行了几十年的研究，但以往的研究大多是从狭隘的角度来研究这一概念。这些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，涉及个人对选民的帮助，(3)分配，或为地区项目获得资金，以及(4)象征，表示与身份特征的联系。虽然这项研究从整体上提供了表征的全面观点，但大多数个体研究只关注其中一个组成部分，因此忽略了这一过程中的重要因素。此外，过去的大多数研究都集中在精英的行为上。关于公民对代表性组成部分的偏好，我们知之甚少。本研究利用三个原始数据来源来发展代表的供求理论，该理论统一了这四个维度，并同时考虑了精英的优先事项(供应)和公民需求。首先，调查者通过对州立法者进行的调查实验和新的州立法者网站档案来检验代表权的供应。这两个数据来源都用于评估代表在与选民互动时如何确定代表各组成部分的优先次序。其次，这项研究还通过对美国成年人的样本进行调查实验，考察了公民对代表权的需求。初步结果表明，需求是由公民期望政府在他们的生活中发挥作用的方式驱动的。这项研究将产生几个更广泛的影响。完成后，这三个数据集将向公众公布(调查以匿名形式进行)。这个项目还具有社会价值，因为它将为讨论在美国的代表质量提供信息。

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.