949411273 Gilliam This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support project addresses apparent contradictions in the literature on public opinion and Congressional responsiveness. That is, while decades of public opinion research indicate that the voters are ill-informed on issues of public policy, the literature on Congress demonstrates that legislative behavior accurately reflects the preferences of their constituents. It seems unlikely that congressmen would behave as they do unless voters ultimately possessed information to punish those legislators who were not responsive. Why is it, them, that researchers have consistently found evidence of congressional responsiveness given the relatively low levels of information in the electorate? The Ph.D. student addresses this question arguing that while the electorate may be generally uninformed, there are a variety of sub-population which devote considerable attention to a relatively narrow range of issues. The student tests the hypothesis in two ways: 1) by relying on survey data provided by the National Senate Election Study; 2) through a content analysis of major newspapers. This study promises to substantially enhance our understanding of the topic.
