Congressional decision-making: An integrated model of political interaction between members of Congress, constituents, and interest groups

The traditional political science literature about legislative decision-making has often theorized about or tested for only a few of the major concepts thought to influence Members of Congress (Members) as they make decisions: parties, ideology, and constituents. Other researchers have focused on the efforts of interest groups, especially through their political action committee (PAC) donations, to influence Members. This focus on parties, ideology and constituency by one group of congressional scholars and interest group contributions by others left both sides wanting for an integrated approach. Both clusters of research, with notable exceptions, ignore other primary methods used by groups to influence legislative voting such as direct lobbying and mobilizing grass roots constituent activity. Authors of those studies generally ignore Members' predisposition to vote in accord with their past decisions as well. Additionally, the personal convictions of Members, represented by their own personal experience and beliefs, has only been addressed by a few scholars. This research proposes an integrated model of congressional decision-making which explicitly models and tests the impact of different constituencies, interest group campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, past Member behavior, and Member specific characteristics. By estimating the effect of all theoretically relevant determinants of Member voting simultaneously, an evaluation of congressional decision-making in an unbiased and systematic manner is possible. This integrated model of congressional decision-making was estimated in the context of the highly visible gun policy sub-system containing major interest groups such as the National Rifle Association and Handgun Control, Inc. The findings show that Members do perceive pro-gun re-election constituencies as suggested by Fenno (1978), and are influenced by them to vote pro-gun. Elite group activities, including PAC contributions and lobbying, were also found to be significant determinants of Members' behavior. The NRA's direct lobbying efforts and PAC contributions convinced Members to vote pro-gun. However, their lobbying of Members with moderate constituencies was shown to backfire, as these Members voted to support gun control. Personal self-interest, ideology of Members, and prior voting history on the issue were also shown to be strong influences on Member decision-making.