CONGRESS AND THE ENERGY DECADE: A ROLL-CALL ANALYSIS OF CONGRESSIONAL VOTING ON ENERGY RELATED QUESTIONS, 1973 - 1983.

Abstract

This study examines individual roll call votes on energy issues taken in Congress during the years 1973 to 1983. Logit analysis is used to compare the influence of partisan identification; personal ideology, as measured by support and opposition to the conservative coalition; and district or state energy characteristics, including energy consumption and production. The potential for misleading results due to the multicollinearity of party and ideology is eliminated through the use of a residual variable representing the non-party component of ideology. The results indicate that members of Congress demonstrated considerable variability in voting on energy matters. The House of Representatives was more responsive to variations in energy constituencies. Both the House and the Senate showed a different response when the substantive character of energy issues varied. Questions with an economic impact were more influenced by partisanship, while environmentally related issues were more strongly influenced by ideology. The gross impact of changes in public opinion and changes in the presidency are noticeable throughout, but most especially after the election of Ronald Reagan, when many of the policy changes made previously were dismantled. The results of this study support the basic proposition that individual roll call votes are a product of constituency influence. The results also indicate that the political partisanship and ideology of members are representative of a member's supportive and reelection constituency. The statistical methods used allowed a direct comparison of the influence of party, ideology, and variables representing the characteristics of member's districts. The results obtained substantiate the importance of constituent influence in congressional voting.