Explaining Explanations: How Legislators Explain their Policy Positions and How Citizens React

Legislators claim that how they explain their votes matters as much as or more than the roll calls themselves. However, few studies have systematically examined legislators’ explanations and citizen attitudes in response to these explanations. We theorize that legislators strategically tailor explanations to constituents in order to compensate for policy choices that are incongruent with constituent preferences, and to reinforce policy choices that are congruent. We conduct a within‐subjects field experiment using U.S. senators as subjects to test this hypothesis. We then conduct a between‐subjects survey experiment of ordinary people to see how they react to the explanatory strategies used by senators in the field experiment. We find that most senators tailor their explanations to their audiences, and that these tailored explanations are effective at currying support—especially among people who disagree with the legislators’ roll‐call positions.     

Doubling Down: Inequality in Responsiveness and the Policy Preferences of Elected Officials

Is bias in responsiveness to constituents conditional on the policy preferences of elected officials? The scholarly conventional wisdom is that constituency groups who do not receive policy representation still obtain some level of responsiveness by legislators outside of the policy realm. In contrast, we present a theory of preference‐induced responsiveness bias where constituency responsiveness by legislators is associated with legislator policy preferences. Elected officials who favor laws that could disproportionately impact minority groups are also less likely to engage in nonpolicy responsiveness to minority groups. We conducted a field experiment in 28 US legislative chambers. Legislators were randomly assigned to receive messages from Latino and white constituents. If legislators supported voter identification laws, Latino constituents were less likely to receive constituency communications from their legislators. There are significant implications regarding fairness in the democratic process when elected officials fail to represent disadvantaged constituency groups in both policy and nonpolicy realms.     

Substance Use and Intimate Violence Among Incarcerated Males

The purpose of this study was to examine substance use patterns among a sample of incarcerated males who report engaging in levels of intimate violence, as well as identifying similarities and differences in demographic, economic status, mental health, criminal justice involvement, relationships, and treatment factors for three groups of incarcerated males - those who report perpetrating low intimate violence, those who report perpetrating moderate intimate violence, and those who report perpetrating extreme intimate violence the year preceding their current incarceration. Findings indicated that low intimate violence group's perpetration consisted almost exclusively of emotional abuse. Moderately intimate violent males and extremely intimate violent males, however, report not only high rates of emotional abuse but physical abuse as well. The distinction between moderate and extremely violent groups was substantial. Findings also indicated that perpetrators at different levels of violence in this study did not vary significantly in age, employment history, marital status, or race. However, the three groups showed significant differences in three main areas: (1) cocaine and alcohol use patterns, (2) stranger violence perpetration and victimization experiences, and (3) emotional discomfort. Implications for substance abuse and mental health treatment interventions and for future research are discussed.     

An extempore government in Syria

Radical Politics in West Bengal. By Marcus F. Franda. Cambridge, Mass, and London, The M. I. T. Press, 1971. Pp. xiv+287. Index. £5.85.

The Urbanization Process in the Third World: Explorations in search of a Theory. By T. G. McGee. London, G. Bell and Sons, 1971. Pp. 179. £2.25.

Economic Theory and the Underdeveloped Countries. By H. Myint. New York, London, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1971. Pp. xii+353. Index.

Tropical Development 1880–1913: Studies in Economic Progress. Edited by W. Arthur Lewis. London, George Allen &; Unwin, 1970. Pp. 346. Index. £3.25.

Modernization without Development: Thailand as an Asian Case Study. By Norman Jacobs. New York, Washington, London, Praeger Publishers (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development), 1971. Pp. ix+420. Bibliog. £7.75.

Russian Agriculture: A Geographic Survey. By Leslie Symons. London, G. Bell and Sons, 1972. Pp. xii+348. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £4.00.

Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China. By Evelyn Sakakida Rawski. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1972. Pp. xi+282. Bibliog. Glossary. Index. £5.25.     

(Re)Embracing Islam in Neidi: the ‘Xinjiang Class’ and the dynamics of Uyghur ethno-national identity

This Xinjiang Class is a four-year, national-level boarding school program established by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the year 2000. The overarching aim of the program is clear: the CCP intends to train a core group of young Uyghurs who have internalized the ideals of the Party. This article, which is based on interviews and regular interaction with over 60 graduates of the Xinjiang Class, casts doubt on whether the boarding schools have been effective in ‘interpellating’ young Uyghurs as compliant members of the Chinese Nation (Zhonghua minzu). This article contends that Uyghur graduates of the Xinjiang Class have instead embraced a non-Chinese ethno-national identity—an identity bound by Central Asian and Islamic cultural norms—and have largely rejected the Zhonghua minzu identity.     

The Private Interests of Public Officials: Financial Regulation in the US Congress

Legislators' private financial holdings affect policy decisions. Due to financial self‐interest, we theorize that legislators whose personal investment portfolios include equities from firms affected by proposed policies vote for legislation that benefits those firms. We also theorize that legislators with greater personal exposure to equity investments support policies that benefit equities markets generally. We create a novel data set of legislators' personal stock investments and examine major congressional actions since the 1990s on financial deregulation and market intervention. US House members who own stocks in firms who benefit from financial deregulation vote for deregulation. House members with greater exposure to financial and automotive stocks support the financial and auto bailouts, respectively. General exposure to equities markets is also associated with support for key legislation boosting markets. The normative implications are significant, as legislators' private interests influence decisions in the public sphere.