Legislative Voting and Accountability

Legislative Voting and Accountability PDF

Author: John M. Carey

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2008-12-15

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1139476793

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Legislatures are the core representative institutions in modern democracies. Citizens want legislatures to be decisive, and they want accountability, but they are frequently disillusioned with the representation legislators deliver. Political parties can provide decisiveness in legislatures, and they may provide collective accountability, but citizens and political reformers frequently demand another type of accountability from legislators – at the individual level. Can legislatures provide both kinds of accountability? This book considers what collective and individual accountability require and provides the most extensive cross-national analysis of legislative voting undertaken to date. It illustrates the balance between individualistic and collective representation in democracies, and how party unity in legislative voting shapes that balance. In addition to quantitative analysis of voting patterns, the book draws on extensive field and archival research to provide an extensive assessment of legislative transparency throughout the Americas.

Accountability in State Legislatures

Accountability in State Legislatures PDF

Author: Steven Rogers

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2023-09-11

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0226827232

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A troubling portrait of democracy in US state legislatures. State legislatures hold tremendous authority over key facets of our lives, ranging from healthcare to marriage to immigration policy. In theory, elections create incentives for state legislators to produce good policies. But do they? Drawing on wide-ranging quantitative and qualitative evidence, Steven Rogers offers the most comprehensive assessment of this question to date, testing different potential mechanisms of accountability. His findings are sobering: almost ninety percent of American voters do not know who their state legislator is; over one-third of incumbent legislators run unchallenged in both primary and general elections; and election outcomes have little relationship with legislators’ own behavior. Rogers’s analysis of state legislatures highlights the costs of our highly nationalized politics, challenging theories of democratic accountability and providing a troubling picture of democracy in the states.

Political Accountability and Responsibility in the Government

Political Accountability and Responsibility in the Government PDF

Author: Cory Contini

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2013-07-18

Total Pages: 11

ISBN-13: 3656462100

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Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Organisation and administration - Miscellaneous, grade: B+, Ottawa University, course: Understanding Politics, language: English, abstract: History has proven, and will continue to prove, that in a democratic society such as Canada, the ultimate mechanism to ensure accountability is democracy. And through the critique of accountability and responsibility, one may find the true bearer of power: public citizens. The government has to be accountable to its citizens because the power is ultimately delegated by them, through voting. To sustain this power, the public must continuously ensure that governments are being responsible and accountable, for anything less is undemocratic.

Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Corruption

Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Corruption PDF

Author: Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-07-14

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1316552888

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Corruption is a significant problem for democracies throughout the world. Even the most democratic countries constantly face the threat of corruption and the consequences of it at the polls. Why are some governments more corrupt than others, even after considering cultural, social, and political characteristics? In Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Corruption, the authors argue that clarity of responsibility is critical for reducing corruption in democracies. The authors provide a number of empirical tests of this argument, including a cross-national time-series statistical analysis to show that the higher the level of clarity the lower the perceived corruption levels. Using survey and experimental data, the authors show that clarity causes voters to punish incumbents for corruption. Preliminary tests further indicate that elites respond to these electoral incentives and are more likely to combat corruption when clarity is high.

The Latin American Voter

The Latin American Voter PDF

Author: Ryan E Carlin

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2015-07-21

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 047205287X

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Public opinion and political behavior experts explore voter choice in Latin America with this follow-up to the 1960 landmark The American Voter

Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability

Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability PDF

Author: R. Douglas Arnold

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2006-04-02

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0691126070

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Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability is the first large-scale examination of how local media outlets cover members of the United States Congress. Douglas Arnold asks: do local newspapers provide the information citizens need in order to hold representatives accountable for their actions in office? In contrast with previous studies, which largely focused on the campaign period, he tests various hypotheses about the causes and consequences of media coverage by exploring coverage during an entire congressional session. Using three samples of local newspapers from across the country, Arnold analyzes all coverage over a two-year period--every news story, editorial, opinion column, letter, and list. First he investigates how twenty-five newspapers covered twenty-five local representatives; and next, how competing newspapers in six cities covered their corresponding legislators. Examination of an even larger sample, sixty-seven newspapers and 187 representatives, shows why some newspapers cover legislators more thoroughly than do other papers. Arnold then links the coverage data with a large public opinion survey to show that the volume of coverage affects citizens' awareness of representatives and challengers. The results show enormous variation in coverage. Some newspapers cover legislators frequently, thoroughly, and accessibly. Others--some of them famous for their national coverage--largely ignore local representatives. The analysis also confirms that only those incumbents or challengers in the most competitive races, and those who command huge sums of money, receive extensive coverage.

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