The Marginality Hypothesis

Abstract

The issue of legislative pay raises offers several advantages as a perspective from which to study the connection between voting behavior and electoral insecurity (the marginality hypothesis). The incentives for voting either yes or no are obvious and allow us to employ the powerful assumptions of self-interest in our analysis. Data for the Ninety-Fifth Congress supports the hypothesis that electorally secure legislators are more likely to support a pay raise than are less electorally secure legislators.