Perception and Misperception: Constituent Knowledge of Their Representative's Persian Gulf War Vote

Abstract

Many assert that constituents know little of their elected official's behavior, especially how their representative s have voted on specific legislative bills. When legislation concerns foreign affairs, the prospects for constituent knowledge are usually asserted to be even bleaker. We challenge these assertions. Our challenge is based on an intensive analysis of one highly salient roll call vote: The House and Senate vote s on the January 14, 1991 "Use of Force Resolution." Using data from the 1990-1991 Panel Study of the Political Consequence s of War we examine constituent perceptions of House and Senate member "Use of Force Resolution" votes. We find that aggregate perceptions of senator votes vary according to the senator's party, his or her tenure and past electoral competitiveness. At the individual level, we find that, while more informed constituents had more accurate perceptions, many less- informed citizens were able to use readily-understandable cues in developing their perceptions.

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