Cracks in Republican unity between Trump and Congress are already beginning to show

Donald Trump will enter the White House this Friday facing a Republican-controlled House and Senate. Michele L. Swers looks ahead to what we might expect from President Trump and the 115th Congress, writing that while they may initially seek areas of common ground, clashes on issues like the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, foreign policy, and infrastructure spending may mean a rocky relationship lays ahead

Paul Ryan's retirement means the season for legislating is now officially over

This week, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-WI), announced that he would be handing in his gavel at year's end and would not run for reelection. Michele L. Swers writes that before becoming Speaker, Ryan was a well-respected conservative in pursuit of budgetary reform. In a job that he only took reluctantly, his ability to legislate effectively as Speaker has been stymied not only by divisions within Congressional Republicans, but by a President whose agenda has departed greatly from Ryan’s own vision of conservative leadership

Descriptive and Substantive Representation in Congress: Evidence from 80,000 Congressional Inquiries

A vast literature debates the efficacy of descriptive representation in legislatures. Though studies argue it influences how communities are represented through constituency service, they are limited since legislators’ service activities are unobserved. Using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, we collected 88,000 records of communication between members of the U.S. Congress and federal agencies during the 108th–113th Congresses. These legislative interventions allow us to examine members’ “follow‐through” with policy implementation. We find that women, racial/ethnic minorities, and veterans are more likely to work on behalf of constituents with whom they share identities. Including veterans offers leverage in understanding the role of political cleavages and shared experiences. Our findings suggest that shared experiences operate as a critical mechanism for representation, that a lack of political consensus is not necessary for substantive representation, and that the causal relationships identified by experimental work have observable implications in the daily work of Congress.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150606/1/ajps12443-sup-0001-SuppMat.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150606/2/ajps12443.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150606/3/ajps12443_am.pd

Beyond Women, Children, and Families: Gender, Representation, and Public Funding for the Arts

Research on the impact of female legislators has found that in their voting records women in elective office tend to be more liberal and more supportive of issues of concern to women, children, and families than are men, differences that conform to gender stereotypes held by voters. This article examines another well-established gender stereotype that is not linked to the traditional concerns of women as conventionally defined by scholars: that women in public office will be more supportive of the arts. Copyright (c) 2007 Southwestern Social Science Association.