Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T03:20:48.500Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Income, Preferences, and the Dynamics of Policy Responsiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Joseph Daniel Ura
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University
Christopher R. Ellis
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University

Extract

A variety of measures indicate that income inequality has grown significantly in the United States during the last three decades (APSA 2004; Brandolini and Smeeding 2006). In a flurry of recent research, scholars have attributed this trend to the failure of the national government to represent the preferences of ordinary citizens in general and less wealthy citizens in particular (APSA 2004; Bartels 2004; 2006; Gilens 2005), who participate in politics less consistently and contribute fewer resources to political candidates than their wealthier peers (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995). The American Political Science Association's (APSA) Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy summarizes this representative failure hypothesis: “disparities in participation ensure that ordinary Americans speak in a whisper while the most advantaged roar” (2004, 2).

Type
Features
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

APSA. 2004. America in an Age of Rising Inequality. Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy. http://apsanet.org/imgtest/taskforcereport.pdf.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2004. “Partisan Politics and the U.S. Income Distribution.” Unpublished manuscript. Princeton University. http://www.princeton.edu/~bartels/income.pdf.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2005. “Homer Gets a Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind.” Perspectives on Politics 3 (March): 1531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2006. “Is the Water Rising? Reflections on Inequality and American Democracy.” PS: Political Science and Politics 40 (January): 3842.Google Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel. 1990. “Estimating Dynamic Models Using Kalman Filtering.” Political Analysis 1: 121–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Steven, and Resnick, David. 1990. “The Implications of Nonvoting for Democracy in the United States.” American Journal of Political Science 34 (3): 771802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandolini, Andrea, and Smeeding, Timothy M.. 2006. “Patterns of Economic Inequality in Western Democracies: Some Facts on Levels and Trend.” PS: Political Science and Politics 40 (January): 21–6.Google Scholar
Brunell, Thomas L., and DiNardo, John. 2004. “A Propensity Reweighting Approach to Simulating the Partisan Effects of Full Turnout in American Presidential Elections.” Political Analysis 12 (1): 2845.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice, Brady, David, and Cogan, John. 2002. “Out of Step, Out of Office: Electoral Accountability and House Members' Voting.” American Political Science Review 96 (1): 127–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Schickler, Eric, and Sides, John. 2003. “What if Everyone Voted? Simulating the Impact of Increased Turnout in Senate Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 47 (1): 7590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1993. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
DeNardo, James. 1980. “Turnout and the Vote: The Joke's on the Democrats.” American Political Science Review 74 (2): 406–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Christopher R., Ura, Joseph Daniel, and Ashley-Robinson, Jenna. 2006. The Dynamic Consequences of Nonvoting in American National Elections. Political Research Quarterly 59 (June): 227–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enns, Peter K., and Kellstedt, Paul M.. 2007. “Policy Mood and Political Sophistication: Why Everybody Moves Mood.” British Journal of Political Science 38 (3): 433–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., MacKuen, Michael B., and Stimson, James A.. 2002. The Macro Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gant, Michael M., and Lyons, William. 1993. “Democratic Theory, Nonvoting, and Public Policy: The 1987–88 Presidential Elections.” American Politics Quarterly 21 (2): 185204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2005. “Public Opinion and Democratic Responsiveness: Who Gets What They Want from Government?” Presented at the annual meeting of the inequality working groups sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation: Berkley, CA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottschalk, Peter, and Smeeding, Thomas M.. 1997. “Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality.” Journal of Economic Literature 35 (June): 633–87.Google Scholar
Hibbs, Douglas Jr. 1977. “Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policies.” American Political Science Review 71 (December): 1,467–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Highton, Benjamin, and Wolfinger, Raymond E.. 2001. “The Political Implications of Higher Turnout.” British Journal of Political Science 31 (1): 179223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Nathan J. 2005. “Political Choice, Public Policy, and Distributional Outcomes.” American Journal of Political Science 49 (4): 865–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez, Michael, and Gill, Jeff. 2005. “The Effects of Turnout on Partisan Outcomes in U.S. Presidential Elections 1960–2000.” Journal of Politics 67 (4): 1,248–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, David. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Nagel, Jack H., and McNulty, John. 1996. “Partisan Effects of Voter Turnout in Senatorial and Gubernatorial Elections.” American Political Science Review 90 (4): 780–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orwell, George. [1941] 2005. “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius.” In Why I Write. New York: Penguin, 1194.Google Scholar
Page, Benjamin I., and Shapiro, Robert Y.. 1983. “Effects of Public Opinion on Policy.” American Political Science Review 77 (1): 175–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohde, David W. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothenberg, Lawrence, and Sanders, Mitchell. 2000. “Severing the Electoral Connection: Shirking in the Contemporary Congress.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (2): 310–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soroka, Stuart N., and Wlezien, Christopher. 2008. “On the Limits to Inequality in Representation.” PS: Political Science and Politics 41 (April): 219327.Google Scholar
Stimson, James A. 1999. Public Opinion in America. 2nded. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, Harvey J., and Vedlitz, Arnold. 1986. “Does Heavy Turnout Help Democrats in Presidential Elections?American Political Science Review 80 (4): 1,291–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E.. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissberg, Robert. 2006. “Politicized Pseudo Science.” PS: Political Science and Politics 40 (January): 33–7.Google Scholar
Welch, Finis. 1999. “In Defense of Inequality.” American Economic Review 89 (2): 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, Christopher. 1995. “The Public as Thermostat: Dynamics of Preferences for Spending.” American Journal of Political Science 39 (4): 9811,000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, Christopher. 1996. “Dynamics of Representation: The Case of US Spending on Defense.” British Journal of Political Science 26 (1): 81103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wlezien, Christopher. 2004. “Patterns of Representation: Dynamics of Public Preferences and Policy.” Journal of Politics 66 (1): 124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar