Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:06:18.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of Multimember State Legislative Districts on Welfare Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Christopher W. Larimer
Christopher W. Larimer*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Electing members of legislatures through multimember districts (MMDs) reduces racial and ethnic minorities' descriptive representation in those bodies, but is their substantive representation also hurt? Do legislative MMDs lead to worse policy outcomes for minorities independent of their effect on legislative demographics? To address these questions, I examine welfare policy in the states from 1997 to 2000. I find evidence that suggests that states whose upper legislative chamber is comprised of MMDs have significantly less generous welfare policy. I conclude that MMDs do indeed damage the substantive representation of racial and ethnic minorities in legislatures, independent of their effect on descriptive representation.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Fall 2005 , pp. 265 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arceneaux, Kevin. 2001. “The ‘Gender Gap’ in State Legislative Representation: New Data to Tackle an Old Question.” Political Research Quarterly 54:143–60.Google Scholar
Barrilleaux, Charles, Holbrook, Thomas, and Langer, Laura. 2002. “Electoral Competition, Legislative Balance, and American State Welfare Policy.” American Journal of Political Science 46:415–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel. 2001. “Time-Series—Cross-Section Data: What Have We Learned in the Past Few Years?” Annual Review of Political Science 4:271–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Ringquist, Evan J., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 1998. “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States, 1960-1993.” American Journal of Political Science 42:327–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Ringquist, Evan J., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 2002. “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the United States” [computer file] (Study #1208). ICPSR version. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan [producer], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2002.Google Scholar
Bratton, Kathleen A. 2002. “The Effect of Legislative Diversity on Agenda Setting: Evidence from Six State Legislatures.” American Politics Research 30:115–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratton, Kathleen A., and Haynie, Kerry L.. 1999. “Agenda Setting and Legislative Success in State Legislatures: The Effects of Gender and Race.” Journal of Politics 61:658–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breen, Richard. 1996. Regression Models: Censored, Sample Selected, or Truncated Data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Michael K. 1999. Race, Money, and the American Welfare State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Robert D. 1995. “Party Cleavages and Welfare Effort in the American States.” American Political Science Review 89:23–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darcy, Robert, Welch, Susan, and Clark, Janet. 1985. “Women Candidates in Single and Multi-Member Districts.” Social Science Quarterly 66:945–53.Google Scholar
Darcy, Robert, Welch, Susan, and Clark, Janet. 1994. Women, Elections, and Representation. 2nd ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Directory of African American Legislators, 1999-2000. Washington, DC: National Black Caucus of State Legislators.Google Scholar
Feinstein, Charles H., and Thomas, Mark. 2002. Making History Count: A Primer in Quantitative Methods for Historians. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fellowes, Matthew C., and Rowe, Gretchen. 2004. “Politics and the New American Welfare States.” American Journal of Political Science 48:362–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finegold, Kenneth, and Weir, Alan. 2002. Welfare Reform: The Next Act. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.Google Scholar
Gerber, Elisabeth R., Morton, Rebecca A., and Rietz, Thomas A.. 1998. “Minority Representation in Multimember Districts.” American Political Science Review 92:127–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 1999. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Anti-poverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, William H. 1997. Econometric Analysis. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hamm, Keith E., and Moncrief, Gary F.. 1999. “Legislative Politics in the States.” In Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, eds. Gray, Virginia, Hanson, Russell L., and Jacob, Herbert. 7th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Hogan, Robert E. 2001. “The Influence of State and District Conditions on the Representation of Women in State Legislatures.” American Politics Research 29:4–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, Robert E., and Hamm, Keith E.. 1998. “The Cost of Representation in State Legislatures: Variations in District-Level Campaign Spending.” In Campaign Finance in State Legislative Elections, eds. Thompson, Joel A. and Moncrief, Gary F.. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 1992. The Politics of Congressional Elections. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Jewell, Malcolm E. 1982. Representation in State Legislatures. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Key, V.O. Jr. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
King, James D. 2002. “Single-Member Districts and the Representation of Women in American State Legislatures: The Effects of Electoral System Change.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 2:161–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, Robert. 1998. Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lublin, David. 1997. The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mead, Lawrence M. 1997. The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Mladenka, Kenneth R. 1989. “Blacks and Hispanics in Urban Policy.” American Political Science Review 83:165–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moncrief, Gary F., and Thompson, Joel A.. 1992. “Electoral Structure and State Legislative Representation: A Research Note.” Journal of Politics 54:246–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Conference of State Legislatures. 2000. “Directory of State Legislatures.” 2000. http://www.ncsl.org/public/ncsl/nav_legislatures.htm (April 7, 2005).Google Scholar
The National Election Studies, Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan. 2000. “The NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior.” Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies [producer and distributor]. http://www.umich.edu/~nes/nesguide/nesguide.htm (April 7, 2005).Google Scholar
O'Rourke, Timothy G. 1998. “The Impact of Reapportionment on Congress and State Legislatures.” In Voting Rights and Redistricting in the United States, ed. Rush, Mark E.. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piven, Frances Fox, and Cloward, Richard A.. 1993. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Richardson, Lilliard E. Jr., and Cooper, Christopher A.. 2003. “Descriptive Representation in Multi-Member District Legislatures, 1975-2002.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Richardson, Lilliard E. Jr., Russell, Brian E., and Cooper, Christopher A.. 2004. “Legislative Representation in a Single-Member versus Multiple-Member District System: The Arizona State Legislature.” Political Research Quarterly 57:337–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Mark. 1997. “The Nature of Party Governance: Connecting Conceptualization and Measurement.” American Journal of Political Science 41:1042–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, Joe, Schram, Sanford F., Vartanian, Thomas P., and O'Brien, Erin. 2001. “Setting the Terms of Relief: Explaining State Policy Choices in the Devolution Revolution.” American Journal of Political Science 45:378–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spector, Paul E. 1992. Summated Rating Scale Construction: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, Carol. 1993. Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African-Americans in Congress. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tobin, James. 1958. “Estimation of Relationships for Limited Dependent Variables.” Econometrica 26:24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline. 2003. “Direct Democracy and Institutional Realignment in the American States.” Political Science Quarterly 118:467–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States Bureau of the Census. 1997-2000. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: United States Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. 2000. “State-by-State Welfare Caseloads since 1993.” http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/stats/caseload.htm (April 7, 2005).Google Scholar
Urban Institute. 2000. “Assessing the New Federalism: The Welfare Rules Database (WRD).” http://anfdata.urban.org/WRD/WRDWelcome.cfm (April 7, 2005).Google Scholar
Whitby, Kenny J. 2002. “Bill Sponsorship and Intraracial Voting among African American Representatives.” American Politics Research 30:93–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Gerald C., Erikson, Robert S., and McIver, John P.. 1987. “Public Opinion and Policy Liberalism in the American States.” American Journal of Political Science 31:980–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar