Doctoral Dissertation Research: Women Legislators and Partisan Bridging

学者、政治家和政治评论家都在详细讨论政治两极分化的负面后果，认为这是两党合作迫切需要恢复的证据。然而，关于两党合作的学术研究--为什么会发生，如何发生，何时发生--仍然相当有限。该项目开发了一种“党派桥接”理论，预测某些立法者何时以及为何愿意跨越党派分歧寻求妥协。虽然这一理论可以在广泛的群体和背景下推广，但这里的重点是女性立法者，因为妇女一直站在立法机构两党合作的最前沿。初步结果表明，女性立法者的政策偏好鼓励两党行为，她们不会像男性立法者那样因两党行为而受到惩罚。因此，虽然两党之间的距离似乎是不可逾越的，但这项研究表明，两党之间的行为仍然可能发生，而且可能是女性立法者领导的指控。这项研究将有助于两个不同的文献，即关于国会及其两极分化的文献和关于女性立法者及其对政治制度的影响的文献。通过将立法者的个人政策偏好放在首位，这一关于党派桥接的理论工作建立在Fenno（1973）和Burden（1994）的工作基础上，并提醒学者，Mayhew（1974）将立法者描绘为“一心一意寻求连任”的人可能无法捕捉立法行为的全部复杂性。通过解决妇女的持续两党行为的难题，这项工作揭示了女性立法者在决策时面临的限制和机会。这项研究还进一步加深了我们对党派关系作为妇女代表性的一个中介因素所起作用的理解。更一般地说，这项工作表明，两极分化的后果可能取决于我们立法机构的性别多样性水平。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The negative consequences of political polarization have been discussed at length by scholars, politicians, and political commentators alike as evidence of a desperate need for a renewal of bipartisanship. Yet scholarship on bipartisanship --why it occurs, how it occurs, and when it occurs-- remains quite limited. This project develops a theory of "partisan bridging" that predicts when and why certain legislators might be willing to cross the partisan aisle in search of compromise. While this theory is generalizable across a wide array of groups and contexts, the focus here is on female legislators because women have been at the forefront of what bipartisanship can be found in legislatures. Preliminary results suggest that female legislators' policy preferences encourage bipartisan behavior and that they are not punished as much for bipartisan behavior as are male legislators. Thus, although the distance between the parties seems to be insurmountable, this research suggests that bipartisan behavior can still occur and that it may be female legislators who will lead the charge.This research will contribute to two distinct literatures: that on Congress and its polarization and that concerning female legislators and their impact on political institutions. By placing legislators' personal policy preferences at the forefront, this theoretical work on partisan bridging builds on the work of Fenno (1973) and Burden (1994) and reminds scholars that Mayhew's (1974) portrait of legislators as "single-minded seekers of reelection" might not capture the full complexity of legislative behavior. By addressing the puzzle of women's continued bipartisan behavior, this work sheds light on the constraints and opportunities female legislators face when making policy decisions. This research also furthers our understanding of the role of partisanship as a mediating factor in women's representation of women. More generally, this work suggests that polarization's consequences might be conditioned upon the level of gender diversity in our legislatures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.