First, I used rates of employment in every congressional district in specific industries as proxies for preferences of constituents. The idea here is that employment should reflect a prioritization of that same issue e. In this first stage, I find mostly strong results, suggesting legislators are aware of the employment patterns in their districts, and they too make the same assumption of employment in a specific industry reflecting the preferences of their constituents.
The problem with this approach, though, is that employment patterns are mere proxies for preferences. Indeed, the assumption of employment reflecting preferences could be wrong. Surprisingly, I find that the effects from the proxy tests in stage one disappear, suggesting legislators are not looking to the specific policy problems constituents highlight, at least insofar as their bill sponsorship fails to reflect these preferences.
Rather, legislators appear to be most influenced by their committee assignments and employment patterns in their districts. Stepping back, these results suggest that legislators are mostly unconcerned with listening to the issue-specific preferences of their constituents.
However, though based on the assumption that employment reflects preferences, legislators are at least attempting to reflect the interests of their districts with their sponsorship decisions.
While not altogether ignoring their districts with their work, they are certainly not responding directly to the specific policy preferences of their constituencies either. In sum, my study calls into question the expectations of the delegate model of representation, and finds that legislators act more as trustees.
Some services are routine, like required letters of recommendation for applications to the military academies.
Other requests are more personal, like help navigating federal bureaucracy or advocacy on a local issue. Representative Helen Bentley described her approach to serving the people of her Maryland district. Next Section. Featured Search Historical Highlights of the House. Learn about Foreign Leader Addresses. Featured Search the People of the House. Majority Leaders. Parties, interest groups, and constituents all influence members of Congress in their vote choices, and members also compromise and negotiate with one another to reach agreements.
Congress represents the people of the United States. Members serve their constituents, the people who live in the district from which they are elected. There are three theories of representation, or how people choose their representatives: trustee representation, sociological representation, and agency representation. According to the theory of trustee representation, the people choose a representative whose judgment and experience they trust. The representative votes for what he or she thinks is right, regardless of the opinions of the constituents.
A constituent who views his or her representative as a trustee need not pay close attention to political events. According to the theory of sociological representation, the people choose a representative whose ethnic, religious, racial, social, or educational background resembles their own.
Because the views of people with similar backgrounds tend to be similar, the representative will act in ways that suit his or her constituents.
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