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  3. Indecision in American Legislatures

Indecision in American Legislatures

Jeffrey J. Harden and Justin H. Kirkland
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  • Overview

  • Contents

Lawmaking provides many opportunities for proposals to be altered, amended, tabled, or stopped completely. The ideal legislator should assess evidence, update his or her beliefs with new information, and sometimes be willing to change course. In practice, however, lawmakers face criticism from the media, the public, and their colleagues for "flip-flopping." Legislators may also only appear to change positions in some cases as a means of voting strategically.

This book presents a systematic examination of legislative indecision in American politics. This might occur via "waffling"—where a legislator cosponsors a bill, then votes against it at roll call. Or it might occur when a legislator votes one way on a bill, then switches her vote to the other side. In Indecision in American Legislatures, Jeffrey J. Harden and Justin H. Kirkland develop a theoretical framework to explain indecision itself, as well as the public's attitudes toward indecision. They test their expectations with data sources from American state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, and survey questions administered to American citizens. Understanding legislative indecision from both the legislator and citizen perspectives is important for discussions about the quality of representation in American politics.

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acknowledgments
  • 1 Open-Minded or Indecisive?
    • 1.1 Before the Final Vote
    • 1.2 Observing Indecision
    • 1.3 Why Does Indecision Matter?
    • 1.4 Competing Principals and Cross-Pressured Representatives
    • 1.5 Explanation, Prediction, and Model Fit
    • 1.6 States as Laboratories
    • 1.7 A Look Ahead
  • 2 A Theory of Legislative Indecision
    • 2.1 A Competing Principals Theory of Indecision
    • 2.2 Illustrating the Theory via Simulation
    • 2.3 Summary
  • 3 Competing Principals and Waffling in State Legislatures
    • 3.1 Waffling Data
    • 3.2 Modeling Waffle Rates
    • 3.3 Conclusions
  • 4 State-Level Patterns in Waffling
    • 4.1 Party
    • 4.2 Cosponsorship Limits
    • 4.3 Professionalism
    • 4.4 Term Limits
    • 4.5 Statistical Models of State-Level Waffling
    • 4.6 Conclusions
  • 5 Predicting Waffling in State Legislatures and the US Congress
    • 5.1 US House
    • 5.2 State Legislative Majority Parties
    • 5.3 State Legislative Minority Parties
    • 5.4 Predicting Individual Waffle Rates
    • 5.5 Conclusions
  • 6 A Placebo Test: Vote Switching in California
    • 6.1 Vote Switching Descriptives
    • 6.2 Explanations for Vote Switching
    • 6.3 Modeling Vote Switches in California
    • 6.4 Conclusions
  • 7 The Consequences of Indecision
    • 7.1 Citizen Reactions to Waffling: Experimental Evidence
    • 7.2 Observational Implications of Indecision
    • 7.3 Conclusions
  • 8 Indecision and Representation in American Politics
    • 8.1 A Summary of the Findings
    • 8.2 Implications for Legislative Scholarship
    • 8.3 Evaluating Models in Social Science
    • 8.4 Indecision and Representation
    • 8.5 Final Thoughts
  • A Appendix to Chapter 2
  • B Appendix to Chapter 7
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index
Citable Link
Published: 2018
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-13099-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12426-8 (ebook)
Series
  • Legislative Politics and Policy Making
Subject
  • Political Science:American Politics
  • Political Science:Political Behavior and Public Opinion
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