Samara’s Book Shelf: "The Legislative Legacy of Congressional Campaigns"

We recently blogged about the different ways people can get involved with Samara, and mentioned the opportunity to contribute book and movie reviews to our blog. For more information on this, you can check out the "5-minute review" guidelines on our website. You can also draw inspiration from this fine example from Samara's Jane Hilderman:

What is it?
Title: The Legislative Legacy of Congressional Campaigns
Published: 2011 by Cambridge University Press
Author: Tracy Sulkin, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

What is it about?
This academic book represents some of the latest groundbreaking research coming out of the field of American political science. In her study, Sulkin explores whether members of Congress follow through on the promises and commitments made during their campaigns, bridging a ‘two solitudes’ of sorts within the discipline between those who study elections and those who study Congress. Until now, a more systematic evaluation of “promise-keeping” has fallen outside traditional lines of inquiry, yet Sulkin makes a very strong case for its importance as a part of democratic legitimacy – a case that is quite intuitive to anyone who votes based on a platform or agenda of commitments. She finds that campaigns do have a lasting legacy on the behaviour of congressmen in office beyond simply voting, which stands contrary to popular opinion of “cheap talk” on the campaign trail.

Your assessment:
Sulkin has conducted a sounds study that builds representation and political behaviour theory with the support of quantitative data. I think Canadian political science would benefit from a rigorous look at promise-keeping in the Canadian context, but Sulkin’s work is not easily replicable. She relies on the meaningful role congressmen play in legislative bill introductions and co-sponsorships as the key means campaign agendas are translated into a legislative legacy. While Canadian parliamentarians do have Private Members’ Business, it’s not an analogous opportunity. In short, Members of Parliament lack the relative independence afforded by the American congressional system to its elected members. Nonetheless, the Canadian public would value a quantitative evaluation of promise-keeping. And such an evaluation, would defy the popular opinion, like Sulkin, and show commitments are more often kept than not. 

Who should read it:
The obvious audience is scholars and students of political science – particularly with an interest in quantitative methods and political behaviour of representatives. Or if you want a strong case whether campaigns really matter (in the U.S.), it’s a good resource.

You should give it a pass if:
You are not a political nerd.

Who are you:
I am a research analyst at Samara, and am currently thinking about ways to measure the performance of Canada’s democracy. How can we design ways to measure unconventional or abstract ideas like the responsiveness of our representatives and institutions? Or inclusiveness?

For more information:
Google book: http://bit.ly/rNT1Uk