Reassessing the Incumbency Effect

by Jeffrey M. Stonecash

• ISBN13: 9780521733229
• ISBN10: 0521733227
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-22
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives have increased their vote percentages in recent decades, raising questions about the efficacy of elections in making members responsive. The evidence, however, indicates there has been no improvement in the electoral fortunes of incumbents in the last 50 years. Only Republicans have improved their electoral fortunes as a result of realignment. This valuable book provides a very different interpretation of how incumbents have fared in recent decades, and the interpretation is supported by non-technical data analysis and presentation.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
An Increased Incumbency Effect: Reconsidering Evidence
An Increased Incumbency Effect and American Politics	p. 3
The Consensus about a Greater Incumbency Effect	p. 11
The Trend in Incumbent Vote Percentages	p. 18
Cumulative Career Changes	p. 32
The Retirement Slump	p. 53
Realignment and the Fortunes of (Some) Incumbents
An Alternative Framework: The Role of Realignment	p. 67
A Partisan View of Incumbent Percentages	p. 88
The Role of Realignment	p. 99
Conclusions and Implications	p. 112
Appendices: More Detailed Analyses of Incumbency Effect Indicators
Realignment and the Retirement Slump: A Closer Look	p. 119
The Gelman-King Analysis	p. 130
The Data Set	p. 151
Bibliography	p. 157
Index	p. 167
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.