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Congress and Community: Coresidence and Social Influence in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1801–1861

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

WILLIAM MINOZZI Open the ORCID record for WILLIAM MINOZZI [Opens in a new window]  and
GREGORY A. CALDEIRA
WILLIAM MINOZZI*
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University, United States
GREGORY A. CALDEIRA*
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University, United States
*
William Minozzi, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, United States, [email protected].
Gregory A. Caldeira, Distinguished University Professor, Dreher Chair in Political Communication and Policy Thinking, Professor of Law, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, United States, [email protected].
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Abstract

Legislators often rely on cues from colleagues to inform their actions. Several studies identify the boardinghouse effect, cue-taking among U.S. legislators who lived together in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, there remains reason for skepticism, as legislators likely selected residences for reasons including political similarity. We analyze U.S. House members’ residences from 1801 to 1861, decades more than previously studied, and show not only that legislators tended to live with similar colleagues but also that coresidents with divergent politics were more likely to move apart. Therefore, we deploy improved identification strategies. First, using weighting, we estimate that coresidence increased voting agreement, but at only half of previously reported levels. Consistent with theoretical expectations, we find larger effects for weaker ties and those involving new members. Second, we study legislators who died in office, estimating that deaths increased ideological distance between survivors and deceased coresidents.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 115 , Issue 4 , November 2021 , pp. 1292 - 1307
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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