Incumbency Advantage
I am one of those people we talk about in class...one of
those typical Americans who does not know a lot about our government, who
probably would not be able to tell you a lot about the candidates running for
presidency for 2008 and who still manages to come up with an opinion or two
about the way things should be run.
I realize my fault and I hope to become more involved and understanding of the wayAmerica
In class on Tuesday the term "incumbent" was brought up along with "incumbency advantage". These were two terms I had never heard before but became interested in the system behind incumbency advantage which seems to be a very sensible and easy concept to grasp. We re-elect people who are already in office because of war chests, PACS, name recognition, free media, casework, and the Franking privilege. I thought this sounded easy enough but as I went searching on line for some information about this concept I found an article by Gary King and Andrew Gelman called "Systemic Consequences of Incumbency Advantage in the U.S. House," This article examines the effects of incumbency advantage on two features of the electoral system in US house elections: electoral responsiveness and partisan bias. It explains the more systematic consequences rather than the electoral consequences of incumbency. Many researchers see incumbency advantage leading to a less responsive system. The research in this article uses many equations to figure out the effects of incumbency advantage in our political system.
I am amazed to find out theat such a simple concept can be so abstract. This idea ties back to the problem of Americans not making informed desicions. We see familiar faces and ideas and choose the same people over and over again. This ties in with the idea of Fenno's Paradox. Even if we say we are unhappy with our congress we continue to vote on the same people because it is what is familiar to us.
I realize my fault and I hope to become more involved and understanding of the way
In class on Tuesday the term "incumbent" was brought up along with "incumbency advantage". These were two terms I had never heard before but became interested in the system behind incumbency advantage which seems to be a very sensible and easy concept to grasp. We re-elect people who are already in office because of war chests, PACS, name recognition, free media, casework, and the Franking privilege. I thought this sounded easy enough but as I went searching on line for some information about this concept I found an article by Gary King and Andrew Gelman called "Systemic Consequences of Incumbency Advantage in the U.S. House," This article examines the effects of incumbency advantage on two features of the electoral system in US house elections: electoral responsiveness and partisan bias. It explains the more systematic consequences rather than the electoral consequences of incumbency. Many researchers see incumbency advantage leading to a less responsive system. The research in this article uses many equations to figure out the effects of incumbency advantage in our political system.
I am amazed to find out theat such a simple concept can be so abstract. This idea ties back to the problem of Americans not making informed desicions. We see familiar faces and ideas and choose the same people over and over again. This ties in with the idea of Fenno's Paradox. Even if we say we are unhappy with our congress we continue to vote on the same people because it is what is familiar to us.