The Politics of Congressional Elections

by Jacobson

• ISBN13: 9780321070692
• ISBN10: 0321070690
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

Jacobson's classic work offers readers a systematic and engaging account of what goes on in congressional elections and demonstrates how electoral politics reflect and shape other basic components of our political system. The Fifth Edition brings everything up to date through the 1998 elections, analyzing new electoral trends that have appeared in the 1990sincluding the Republicans' rise to majority status and their current precarious hold on Congresswhile also offering a thorough consideration of impeachment politics in 1998 and 1999.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vii
List of Figures	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(4)
The Context	5	(16)
The Constitutional Framework	5	(6)
Cogressional Districts	6	(2)
Partisan Gerrymandering	8	(1)
Racial Gerrymandering	9	(1)
States as Electoral Units	10	(1)
Election Laws	11	(1)
Political Parties	12	(3)
Social and Political Contexts	15	(6)
Congressional Candidates	21	(36)
The Incumbency Factor	21	(9)
Measuring the Value of Incumbency	24	(3)
The Vanishing Marginals	27	(3)
Sources of the Incumbency Advantage	30	(10)
The Institutional Characteristics of Congress	30	(2)
Changes in Voting Behavior	32	(1)
Constituency Service	33	(2)
The Variability of the Incumbency Advantage	35	(1)
Discouraging the Opposition	36	(4)
Money in Congressional Elections	40	(6)
The Connection between Money and Success	41	(3)
Why Campaign Money Is More Important to Challengers	44	(2)
The Career in the District	46	(2)
Motivating Challengers	48	(9)
Congressional Campaigns	57	(44)
Campaign Money	59	(20)
Political Action Committees	59	(12)
Party Money	71	(6)
Self-Financing by Candidates	77	(1)
Fundraising Tactics	78	(1)
Campaign Organizations	79	(1)
Campaign Strategies	80	(4)
Campaign Media	81	(2)
Personal Campaigning	83	(1)
Campaign Messages	84	(8)
Challengers' Campaigns	85	(1)
Going Negative	86	(2)
Incumbents' Campaigns	88	(3)
Candidates for Open Seats	91	(1)
Senate Campaigns	92	(1)
``Voter Education'' and ``Issue Advocacy'' Campaigns	93	(1)
Concluding Observations	94	(7)
Congressional Voters	101	(40)
Turnout in Congressional Elections	101	(1)
Who Votes?	102	(3)
Partisanship in Congressional Elections	105	(5)
Alternative Interpretations of Party Identification	105	(2)
Partisanship and Voting	107	(3)
Information and Voting	110	(13)
Recall and Recognition of Candidates	111	(5)
Contacting Voters	116	(5)
The Effects of Campaign Spending	121	(2)
Models of Voting Behavior	123	(2)
Evaluating Incumbents	125	(7)
Winning Challengers	132	(2)
Issues in Congressional Elections	134	(7)
National Politics and Congressional Elections	141	(70)
Political Interpretations of Congressional Elections	142	(4)
Models of Aggregate Congressional Election Results	143	(3)
Presidential Coattails	146	(7)
National Conditions and Strategic Politics	153	(7)
Campaign Themes	159	(1)
House Election, 1980-1998	160	(35)
1980	160	(1)
1982	161	(2)
1984	163	(3)
1986	166	(1)
1988	167	(2)
1990	169	(2)
1992	171	(7)
1994	178	(2)
The Clinton Problem	180	(2)
Nationalizing the Vote	182	(3)
1996	185	(2)
The Campaigns	187	(2)
1998	189	(1)
The Scandal and the Campaigns	190	(5)
House Election Patterns, 1980-1998	195	(1)
Senate Elections, 1980-1998	196	(15)
Elections and the Politics of Congress	211	(26)
The Congressional Parties	213	(2)
The Committee Systems	215	(2)
Making Policy	217	(10)
Particularism	217	(3)
Serving the Organized	220	(2)
Immobility	222	(1)
Symbolism	223	(1)
Doing the Right Thing	223	(2)
Building Coalitions	225	(2)
The Budgetary Process	227	(10)
Representation, Responsibility, Impeachment Politics, and the Future of Congressional Elections	237	(34)
Representation	237	(4)
Policy Congreuence	239	(1)
Beyond Policy Congruence	239	(1)
Descriptive Representation	240	(1)
Responsiveness without Responsibility	241	(1)
The Revival of Party Cohesion	242	(12)
Ideological Polarization in Congress and the Electorate	245	(3)
Party Polarization: The Electoral Connection	248	(2)
Diverging Electoral Constituencies	250	(1)
Chicken or Egg?	251	(3)
Party Polarization and the Politics of Impeachment	254	(5)
Divided Government in the 1990s	259	(2)
Reforming Congress	261	(3)
Term Limits	262	(2)
The Public's Evaluations of Congress	264	(1)
Toward the Millennium	265	(6)
Bibliography	271	(17)
Index	288