Local Union Organization and Law Making in the US Congress

Becher, Michael; Stegmueller, Daniel; Käppner, Konstantin

Publication:
Local Union Organization and Law Making in the US Congress

dc.contributor.author	Becher, Michael
dc.contributor.author	Stegmueller, Daniel
dc.contributor.author	Käppner, Konstantin
dc.contributor.ror	https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
dc.date.accessioned	2025-01-14T11:00:42Z
dc.date.available	2025-01-14T11:00:42Z
dc.date.issued	2018-04
dc.description.abstract	The political power of labor unions is a contentious issue in the social sciences. Departing from the dominant focus on membership size, we argue that unions’ influence on national law making is based to an important degree on their local organization. We delineate the novel hypothesis that the horizontal concentration of union members within electoral districts matters. To test it, we draw on administrative records and map the membership size and concentration of local unions to districts of the US House of Representatives, 2003–12. We find that, controlling for membership size, representatives from districts with less concentrated unions have more liberal voting records than their peers. This concentration effect survives numerous district controls and relaxing OLS assumptions. While surprising for several theoretical perspectives, it is consistent with theories based on social incentives. These results have implications for our broader understanding of political representation and the role of groups in democratic politics.
dc.description.peerreviewed	yes
dc.description.status	Published
dc.format	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Becher, M., Stegmueller, D., & Käppner, K. (2018). Local union organization and law making in the US congress. The Journal of Politics, 80(2), 539-554. https://doi.org/10.1086/694546
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1086/694546
dc.identifier.issn	1468-2508
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14417/3443
dc.issue.number	2
dc.journal.title	The Journal of Politics
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	The University of Chicago Press
dc.relation.department	Comparative Politics
dc.relation.entity	IE University
dc.relation.school	IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.es
dc.title	Local Union Organization and Law Making in the US Congress
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.version.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
dc.volume.number	80
dspace.entity.type	Publication
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	64459ea7-0faa-4600-9041-a4f317ab9579
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	64459ea7-0faa-4600-9041-a4f317ab9579