About the book

Representation in America: Majority Rule in a Divided Political System presents a comprehensive and data-driven look at how Congress has represented the American public, drawing on sixteen years of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study — spanning the presidencies of George W. Bush through Joe Biden — and more than 100 key legislative proposals. The result is a balanced and nuanced account of how electoral and legislative institutions channel and amplify majority preferences while tempering the most divisive proposals. We trace each stage of the representation process, from agenda setting and public opinion to individual legislator behavior, district structure, and collective congressional action. At each step we find a strong majoritarian tendency: most issues on the legislative agenda enjoy the support of the majority of Americans; voters tend to choose legislators whose policies they agree with; most legislators voted in-line with the majority of their constituencies most of the time; legislative districts magnify rather than mute majority opinion. When majority rule falls short, it is usually because popular legislation stalls—particularly in the Senate, where supermajority rules create high barriers to passage—rather than because Congress imposes laws the public opposes. Congress often fails to act when the public supports action, but it rarely acts in the absence of public support. Consequently, 80 percent of laws passed enjoyed the support of the majority of the nation.

Table of Contents

1. Channels and Dams
2. Measuring Representation
   • A Matter of Scale
   • Asking Questions
   • Capturing the Decision Agenda
   • The Big Issues
   • Conclusion
3. The Pictures in Our Heads
   • Reality
   • Belief
   • Reality and Belief
   • Which Reality?
   • Conclusion
4. Accountability
   • Agreement and Support
   • A Responsible Electorate
   • Conclusion
5. Party and Issues
   • Issue and Party Beliefs Predict Evaluations
   • Multiple Channels
   • Where Does the Vote Come From?
   • Conclusion
6. Setting the Agenda
   • The Pull of the Majority
   • Strategic Choice of the Legislative Agenda
   • Majority Rule and Polarization
   • Conclusion
7. The Members Respond
   • District, Nation, and Party
   • Variation Across Issues
   • The Agenda Puts the Minority Party in a Bind
   • Conclusion
8. The Districts
   • Duverger’s Law
   • Districts Dilute Partisan Division Among Voters
   • Districts Magnify Majority Opinion
   • Senate Elections Foster Divided Government
   • Conclusion
9. What’s the Matter with Congress?
   • The Conventional View
   • The House
   • The Senate
   • Two Chambers
   • Unified and Divided
   • Conclusion
10. How Democratic Is American Democracy?
    • Democratic Responsiveness
    • Division
    • Inaction
    • Good Laws
    • Conclusion

• Acknowledgments
• Appendix
• References
• Notes
• Index