William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

Congress and the people 381

in Medicare payments, or new highway projects, hundreds of representatives act as

delegates for their districts’ interests.

Truth be told, nearly all members act like trustees in some circumstances and

like delegates in others. The third model of representation captures this reality: the

politico is more likely to act as a delegate on issues that are highly salient to his or her

constituency (such as immigration reform or farm subsidies) but as a trustee on less

salient or very complex issues (such as some foreign policies). Therefore, the crucial

component of representation is the nature of the constituency and how the member of

Congress attempts to balance and represent constituents’ conflicting needs and desires.

The Role of the Constituency Most voters do not monitor their representatives’

behavior closely. Can representation work if voters are not paying attention?

Members of Congress behave as if voters were paying attention, even when

constituents are inattentive. Incumbents know that at election time challengers may

raise issues that become salient after the public thinks about them, so they try to

deter challengers by anticipating what the constituents would want if they were fully

informed.^9 For example, the public didn’t know much about the FBI’s inability to hack

into locked phones, but it became an issue in the 2016 elections when the FBI tried

to force Apple to allow it to access a phone used by a suspect in the San Bernardino

shootings. Savvy incumbents would have tried to stake out a position consistent with

what the voters would want before a strong challenger raised the issue in a campaign.

Richard F. Fenno, one of the leading congressional scholars of the twentieth century,

points out that some segments of the constituency are more attentive and more

important for a member’s reelection than others (see Figure 11.1).^10

Another way to examine the representative–constituency relationship is to look

at differences across districts. How do districts vary? First, they differ in size: Senate

“districts” (that is, states) vary in terms of area and population. House districts all

have about 755,000 people, but they vary tremendously in geographic size. Second,

districts differ in terms of who lives there and what they want from government.

Some districts are located in poor city neighborhoods, where voters’ concerns are

economic development, crime control, antipoverty programs, and looser immigration

politico

A member of Congress who acts as a

delegate on issues that constituents

care about (such as immigration

reform) and as a trustee on more

complex or less salient issues (such

as some foreign policy or regulatory

matters).

FIGURE

11.1

Re

ele

cti

on

(th

ose^ who

vote (^) fo
r (^) th
e (^) m
em
be
r)
Personal
(strongest supporters)
(advisers, friends, and family)
Primary
Geo
graph
ic^ (the^ entire (^) dist
rict
)
How Do
Representatives
See Their
Constituents?
The concentric circles of a
congressional constituency illustrate
the various parts of a district that a
member represents. Can you think
of an issue on which House members
would be more responsive to their
reelection constituency than to their
geographic constituency?
Source: Based on Richard F. Fenno, Home
Style: House Members in Their Districts
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1978).
Full_12_APT_64431_ch11_374-417.indd 381 16/11/18 10:30 AM