Scholars have claimed that PAC influence on congressional behavior is more likely on certain types of issues. After considering both roll-call voting and committee participation, I argue that the conditions making PAC influence on voting most likely make influence on participation least likely, and vice versa. The analysis of 20 legislative proposals indicates that PACs are able to influence voting on non-ideological/non-visible issues, but are more likely to influence participation on ideological/visible issues. Unlike previous studies, these findings demonstrate that PACs can influence behavior across different contexts, but that the route to influence differs depending on the type of issue being considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adler, E. Scott. 2002. Congressional District Data File, 103rd and 104th Congress. Boulder: University of Colorado Press
2.
Baumgartner, Frank R., and Beth L. Leech. 1998. Basic Interests: The Importance of Interest Groups in Politics and in Political Science. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
3.
Berry, Jeffrey M.1999. The New Liberalism: The Rising Power of Citizen Groups. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
4.
Bronars, Stephen G., and John R. Lott. 1997. “Do Campaign Contributions Alter How a Politician Votes? Or, Do Donors Support Candidates Who Value the Same Thing That They Do?”Journal of Law and Economics40: 317-350.
5.
Buchler, Justin, and Matthew Jarvis. 2001. Reassessing the Impact of Campaign Contributions on Legislative Roll Call Votes: Controlling for Electorate Danger. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
6.
Chappell, Henry W. Jr.1981. “Campaign Contributions and voting on the Cargo Preference bill: A comparison of simultaneous models.”Public Choice36: 301-312.
7.
Clawson, Dan, Alan Neustadt, and Mark Weller. 1998. Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
8.
Davis, Frank L.1993. “Balancing the Perspective on PAC Contributions: In Search of An Impact on Roll Calls.”American Politics Quarterly21 (2): 205-222.
9.
Evans, Diana M.1986. “PAC Contributions and Roll-call Voting: Conditional Power.” In Allan J. Cigler and Burdette Loomis, eds., Interest Group Politics, 2nd ed.Washington, DC: CQ Press.
10.
Fenno, Richard F.1973. Congressman in Committees. New York: Little, Brown.
11.
Fleisher, Richard. 1993. “PAC Contributions And Congressional Voting On National Defense.”Legislative Studies Quarterly28 (3): 391-409.
12.
Frendreis, John P., and Richard W. Waterman. 1985. “PAC Contributions and Legislative Behavior: Senate Voting on Trucking Deregulation.”Social Science Quarterly66: 401-412.
13.
Gordon, Stacy B.2001. “All Votes Are Not Created Equal: Campaign Contributions and Critical Votes.”Journal of Politics63 (1): 249-269.
14.
Greene, William H.2000. Econometric Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
15.
Grenzke, Janet M.1989. “PACs and the Congressional Supermarket: The Currency Is Complex.”American Journal of Political Science33 (1): 1-24.
16.
Hall, Richard L.1987. “Participation and Purpose in Committee Decision Making.”American Political Science Review (81): 105-127.
17.
Hall, Richard L.1996. Participation in Congress. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
18.
Hall, Richard L., and Frank W. Wayman. 1990. “Buying Time: Moneyed Interests and the Mobilzation of Bias in Congressional Committees. American Political Science Review84 (3): 797-818.
19.
Jones, Woodrow Jr., and K. Robert Keiser. 1987. “Issue Visibility and the Effects of PAC Money.”Social Science Quarterly68: 170-176.
20.
Kingdon, John W.1989. Congressmen’s Voting Decisions. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
21.
Langbein, Laura I.1986. “Money and Access: Some Empirical Evidence.”Journal of Politics48 (4): 1052-1062.
22.
Langbein, Laura I., and Mark Lotwis. 1990. “The Political Efficacy of Lobbying and Money: Gun Control in the U.S. House, 1986.”Legislative Studies Quarterly15: 413-440.
23.
Munger, Michael C.1989. “A Simple Test of the Thesis That Committee Jurisdictions Shape Corporate PAC Contributions.”Public Choice62: 181-186.
24.
Nagler, Jonathan. 1991. “The Effect of Registration Laws and Education on U.S. Voter Turnout.”American Political Science Review85 (4): 1393-1405.
25.
Neustadtl, Alan. 1990. “Interest-Group PACsmanship: An Analysis of Campaign Contributions, Issue Visibility and Legislative Impact.”Social Forces69: 549-564.
26.
Schroedel, Jan Leith. 1986. “Campaign Contributions and Legislative Outcomes.”Western Political Quarterly40: 371-389.
27.
Smith, Richard A.1995. “Interest Group Influence in the U.S. Congress.”Legislative Studies Quarterly20 (1): 89-139.
28.
Stimson, James A., Michael B. MacKuen, and Robert S. Erikson. 1995. “Dynamic Representation.”American Political Science Review89: 543-565.
29.
Stratmann, Thomas. 1991. “What Do Campaign Contributions Buy? Deciphering Causal Effects of Money and Votes.”Southern Economic Journal57: 606-620.
30.
Stratmann, Thomas. 1995. “Campaign Contributions and Congressional Voting: Does The Timing of Contributions Matter?”Review of Economics and Statistics77 (1): 127-136.
31.
Wawro, Gregory. 2001. “A Panel Probit Analysis of Campaign Contributions and Roll Call Votes.”American Journal of Political Science45 (3): 563-579.
32.
Wilhite, Alan, and John W. Thielman. 1987. “Labor PAC Contributions and Labor Legislation: A Simultaneous Logit Approach.”Public Choice53: 267-276.
33.
Wright, John R.1985. “PACs, Contributions, and Roll Calls: An Organizational Perspective.”American Political Science Review79 (2): 400-414.
34.
Wright, John R.1990. “Contributions, Lobbying and Committee Voting in the U.S. House of Representatives.”American Political Science Review84 (2): 417-438.
35.
Wright, John R. 2002. PAC Contributions and Voting on Tobacco Policy in the U.S. Congress, 1981-2000. Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
36.
Zorn, Christopher. 2001. “Generalized Estimating Equation Models for Correlated Data: A Review With Applications.”American Journal of Political Science45: 470-490.
