Black Constituents and Congressional Roll Call Votes

Abstract

HE POLITICAL arena has changed dramatically for blacks in the last 25 years. Blacks, even in the South, now register to vote in percentages comparable to whites, and the overall participation level of blacks actually exceeds that of whites if socioeconomic status differences are controlled (see Feagin and Hahn 1970; Verba and Nie 1972). It is hardly arguable that political mobilization has brought blacks increased influence over public policy matters.' However, there remains substantial uncertainty as to the specific manner in which the concerns, desires, and goals of black constituents are translated into public policy decisions. The purpose of this brief study is to improve current understanding of this translation. The specific question we address is the effect of different numbers of black constituents on the voting of members of the United States House of Representatives.2 Can we say that the more blacks there are residing in a congressional district, the more likely the representative from that district is to support legislation favorable to blacks? We are by no means the first to ask such a question; in fact, V. O. Key raised the issue 35 years ago and it has been frequently examined since then (see Key 1949; Matthews and Prothro 1966; Keech 1968; and Bullock 1981, just to name a few). Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the conclusions reached differ markedly. Part of the confusion is, no doubt, attributable to the dramatic change in the political status of blacks during the past 30 years. The actual effect of black constitutents on the roll-call behavior of their representatives in 1950 was markedly different from their effect in the 1970s, and this explains some of the inconsistencies in the findings. As we shall see, however, even when only the post-Civil Rights Act era is examined, conclusions have been quite disparate. Given the importance of the topic and the level of previous attention, an effort to clarify the nature of the