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WEALTH AND POLITICAL INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. CONGRESS By Darrian Stacy Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Political Science May 31, 2021 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Alan Wiseman, Ph.D. Joshua Clinton, Ph.D. Sharece Thrower, Ph.D. Larry Bartels, Ph.D. Nicholas Carnes, Ph.D. Copyright © 2021 Darrian Stacy All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION To God, who orders my steps. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not be possible without the support and encouragement from several advisors, colleagues, family, and friends before and during my time in graduate school. I sincerely thank you all for providing me with untold riches, and I promise to always pay your kindness forward. First, I would like to thank my mentor, first-year advisor, and dissertation committee co-chair, Alan Wiseman, for his unfailing guidance from the very beginning of my PhD journey. Since my first visit to Vanderbilt, I recognized that Alan would be an effective professional role model. Throughout classes, comprehensive exams, presentations, confer- ences, and the job market, he has always provided me with the best advice and tools to navigate challenges in academia. He is the most conscientious person that I know, and I am inspired to work harder anytime I think about him. I deeply appreciate Alan for all of the time that he has invested in me. I also want to thank my other dissertation co-chair, Joshua Clinton. Of all of my ad- visors, I have learned the most from Josh and the courses he taught. Talking to Josh and “hopping aboard the J-train” (as we grad students would say) always provoked new re- search ideas, and I am grateful that he was the first faculty member to invite me to his office just to chat about my research interests in my first year. I am also grateful for his guidance in developing my prospectus, his help in recruiting dissertation committee mem- bers, and his significant contributions to my overall well-being at Vanderbilt. Additionally, I thank the other members of my dissertation committee: Sharece Thrower, Larry Bartels, and Nicholas Carnes. I thank Sharece for always being expeditious and con- structive with feedback and advice. Moreover, I thank her for the many times that she helped me to fix my mistakes and navigate things that I did not know that I did not know about academia. I thank Larry Bartels for providing thoughtful and detailed advice about the dissertation. I will also always cherish our one-on-one conversations about his life and iv career, which will continue to inform me about how to thrive personally and professionally throughout my own career. I thank Nick for always going above and beyond my expec- tations for an outside committee member. Our regular chats have often been the highlight of my week, and this dissertation would be significantly different without him. Together and individually my dissertation committee provided me with the support, patience, and encouragement to write a dissertation that potentially makes a meaningful contribution. This dissertation would also look very different without research assistance and feed- back from a number of individuals and institutions. I thank Andrew Eggers, Marko Klasnja,ˇ Sarah Treul Roberts, Rachel Porter, and the Center for Effective Lawmaking for sharing data that is used throughout this dissertation. For helpful feedback and suggestions on early presentations, I thank David E. Lewis and members of his 2019 summer book club, participants of ”Clinton Club”, and my classmates in the spring 2020 graduate seminar for electoral politics at Vanderbilt. Similarly, I thank audiences at the American Political Science Association’s 2020 annual meeting, the University of Georgia, the United States Naval Academy, Claremont Graduate University, and American University. I owe a debt to the faculty and staff of the Department of Political Science who took great care of my financial and academic needs while I attended Vanderbilt. Special thanks to Jon Hiskey and Darlene Davidson for their efforts to recruit me to Vanderbilt, and I thank Shannon Meldon-Corney and my colleagues at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions for fostering a fun and inclusive work environment. I also appreciate my undergraduate advisors, Michael Lynch and Anthony Madonna, for the research experience and recommendation letters that initially opened the door for me to pursue this career path. I hope they both know how much they changed my life for the better. I am also grateful to many friends that I have made at Vanderbilt who always made me feel welcome and kept me sane with their company. In particular, I thank Spencer and Ashley Hall for being constant sources of joy, lunch chats, and game nights. I thank my v coauthor, Dan Alexander, for his friendship and for providing a supportive shoulder through every crisis and insecurity that I had during graduate school. For similar reasons, I also thank several friends and colleagues including: Georgia Likins, James Matherus, Daniela Osorio Michel, Sangeun Kim, HeeJu Jang, Adam Wolsky, Mary Catherine Sullivan, Rich Hagner, Isaac Riddle, Kat Traut, and Meg Frost. I also thank several Vanderbilt alumni who kept in touch and offered me encouragement at various points: Marc Trussler, Scott Limbocker, Sydney L. Jones, and Brielle Harbin. Finally, I thank my family for motivating and helping me to always keep what is most important in life in perspective. Thanks to my partner, Diante´ Daniels, who has been with me every day throughout my PhD journey. I am truly blessed to have a partner who was willing to endure countless video calls and weekend out-of-state drives to and from Nashville during my first four years at Vandy. Thanks also to the Fabian family of southeast Georgia who first nicknamed me “Professor” and inspired my dream when I was in their care 15 years ago. Thanks to my dad, Robert Woodard, for taking care of our family while I pursued my education. Above all, thanks to my mom, Chantel Woodard, who has always loved and believed in me, especially whenever I failed to believe in myself. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION . iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . x LIST OF FIGURES . xii 1 Dissertation Introduction . 1 2 Wealth for Members of Congress 1980-2012: Data, Measurement, and Descrip- tive Analysis . 4 2.1 Introduction . 4 2.2 Representative Personal Finances Data . 6 2.2.1 Financial Disclosure Reports . 6 2.2.2 Data Description . 7 2.2.3 Measuring the Wealth of Representatives . 8 2.3 Wealth in the House of Representatives . 8 2.3.1 Representatives’ Wealth Compared to the Public . 8 2.3.2 Distribution of Wealth in the House over Time . 9 2.3.3 Growth of Congressional Wealth over Time . 12 2.3.4 The Most- and Least-wealthy Representatives . 14 2.4 The Most- and Least-wealthy Representatives before Congress . 19 2.4.1 Congressional Wealth and Previous Occupation . 27 2.5 Summary . 31 3 The Electoral Effects of Incumbent Wealth Revisited . 33 3.1 Introduction . 33 3.2 Wealth and Congressional Elections . 35 vii 3.3 Campaign Finance Data . 38 3.4 Methods . 43 3.5 Results . 46 3.6 Discussion . 53 4 Wealth and Policymaking in the U.S. House of Representatives . 57 4.1 Introduction . 57 4.2 Conventional Wisdom about Wealth and Policymaking . 60 4.3 Historical Perspectives and Theoretical Considerations . 63 4.3.1 Why Wealth May Not Be Relevant for Policymaking Success? . 64 4.3.2 Why Might Wealthy People Be Effective Lawmakers in Congress? . 65 4.3.3 When Might Wealthy Lawmakers Be More Effective than Their Peers? . 70 4.3.4 Which Areas Might Wealthy Legislators Be Most Effective Lawmakers in?..................................... 71 4.4 Data . 75 4.5 Results and Analysis . 76 4.5.1 The Legislative Strategies of Wealthy and Less-wealthy Members . 84 4.5.2 Identifying Areas of Entrepreneurial Politics . 89 4.5.2.1 The Most-wealthy Representatives and Entrepreneurial Politics 92 4.5.2.2 The Least-wealthy Representatives and Entrepreneurial Politics 93 4.6 Discussion . 96 5 Wealth and Symbolic Representation in the U.S. House of Representatives . 99 5.1 Introduction . 99 5.2 Theoretical Considerations . 101 5.3 Survey Data . 106 5.4 Results . 107 5.5 Discussion . 116 viii Appendix . 119 A. The Electoral Effects of Incumbent Wealth Revisited Appendix . 119 B. Wealth and Policymaking Appendix . 123 C. Wealth and Symbolic Representation Appendix . 130 References . 135 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 2.1 Financial Disclosure Reports: Assets and Liabilities . 6 2.2 Median Wealth of Freshmen and Non-freshmen Members . 13 2.3 Sample of the Least-wealthy Members in the House; 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 20 2.4 Sample of the Most-wealthy Members in the House; 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 23 2.5 Proportion of Member Previous Occupations within Each Wealth Percentile, 2000-2008 . 30 3.1 Incumbent Total Own-source Loans and Contributions . 39 3.2 Incumbent Wealth, Campaign Financing, and Performance in General Elec- tions . 41 3.3 Incumbent Wealth and Self-financing . 47 3.4 Incumbent Wealth and Campaign Receipts . 48 3.5 Incumbent Wealth and Challenger Deterrence . 50 3.6 Incumbent Wealth and Vote Share . 52 4.1 Descriptive Statistics of Independent Variables in the House . 77 4.2 Lawmaker Wealth and Legislative Effectiveness . 83 4.3 Entrepreneurial Politics across Issue Areas . 90 4.4 Lawmaker Wealth and Interest and Legislative Effectiveness Scores for Less- entrepreneurial Issue Areas . 92 4.5 Lawmaker Wealth and Interest and Legislative Effectiveness Scores for En- trepreneurial Issue Areas . 93 4.6 Lawmaker Wealth and Interest and Legislative Effectiveness Scores for Less- entrepreneurial Issue Areas, 99th-102nd Congresses .