Do Tough on Crime Politicians Win More Elections - An Empirical Analysis of California State Legislators from 1992 to 2000
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Authors
Krieger, Steven A.
Issue Date
2012
Type
Journal Article
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION|Democracy is founded on the principle that the public elects a handful of legislators to represent its personal views about the way a country should operate. Although a handful of voters may have extreme or irrational views, the majority is quite moderate. As V.0. Key, Jr. explained, "[M]any individual voters act in odd ways indeed; yet in the large the electorate behaves about as rationally and responsibly as we should expect, given the clarity of the alternatives presented to it and the character of the information available to it."|To maintain constituent support, legislators research, write, introduce, debate, and ultimately vote on bills based on the electorate they represent. If legislators continuously support bills that conflict with the views of their electorate, those legislators are less likely to get reelected. Legislators, therefore, regularly consider their constituents views prior to making a decision to support or oppose a particular bill...
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Citation
45 Creighton L. Rev. 131 (2011-2012)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law