Graduation Year
2016
Date of Submission
4-2016
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)
Second Department
Economics
Reader 1
William Lincoln
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2016 Michael J Irvine
Abstract
Who gets represented in America? How does representation change over time? This thesis attempts to answer both questions, which are necessarily linked to one another. I investigate long-term trends in representation and temporary fluctuations in group influence by using a probit model to examine the link between socioeconomic groups’ policy preferences and outcomes in year-groups roughly corresponding to presidential terms. I find evidence for the suggestion in the literature that American policymaking contains a strong bias in favor of the status quo, but I depart from the literature in finding little evidence for a suggested link between income and political influence. I find evidence of declining policy activity in the 1990s and 2000s relative to the 1980s but little evidence of a long-term trend towards less policy output. In general, I find little evidence of long-term trends in representation, including the idea that our policy outcomes are becoming more correlated with the views of minority groups such as African-Americans and Hispanics.
Recommended Citation
Irvine, Michael, "Representation Yesterday and Today: The Changing Link between Public Opinion and Policy Outcomes over Time" (2016). CMC Senior Theses. 1392.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1392
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
