Political Science 322



The Research Paper: Political Party Differences in Congress



Spring 2007


Political Parties in California

How are political parties in California different? In what way are political parties in California similar? To answer these question, select a sample of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California. In your sample include five Democrats and five Republicans. You will then collect and analyze data that includes:
  1. ratings of Members of the U.S. House by selected special interest groups;
  2. campaign contributions; and
  3. demographic characteristics of congressional districts.

Objectives and Instructions

  1. The objectives of this assignment are to demonstrate that you can:
    1. find and collect quantitative data;
    2. use appropriate tables and/or graphs to report data;
    3. analyze and intrepret data;
    4. write about data interestingly and professionally.

  2. Instructions:
    The paper should be between ten and fifteen pages including the the tables and/or graphs used to present the data. It is strongly recommended that you integrate the tables and/or graphs into the body of the paper rather than including them as an addendum at the end of the paper. Both the text and the tables and/or graphs must be typed. You will need to include a minimum of three tables in your paper.

    • The first table will report Special Interest Group Ratings of each Representative. Select the same number of Interest Group ratings as you have members of Congress If you have ten members of Congress, then report the ratings of ten interest groups.

    • In the second table report data on campaign contributions to each Representative. The Center for Responsible Politics reports the dollar amount contributed to each Member of Congress by individuals and Political Action Committees (PAC) for 13 different sectors, or type of special interest group. In this table, report the Total contributed by special interest groups and indivduals to each Member of Congress for all 13 sectors. You will need to convert the dollar amounts to a percentage so you can compare campaign contributions. This data will help you identify which interest groups contributes to the members of each political party.

    • In the third table report the population characteristics as reported in the 2000 census for of each congressional district. Select at least six characteristis from the census data. In this table, Also report either the party registration for each party or the percentage of votes cast for each Representative or presidential candidates in the 2000 election as a measure of the competitiveness of the district.

  3. Source of Data
    All of the data you will need for this paper is available on the internet. There is a page of     Links included on the on the web site for this course. In addition, there is also a "Guide" for constructing tables and writing the research paper. A sample table is included.

  4. Working as a Group
    You may work with other class members on a single project. If you wish to work as a group,

  5. Late papers may be graded on a pass/fail basis at the discretion of the instructor. Papers will not be accepted after the last day of instruction (i.e., before the Final Exam).

Analyzing the Data

  1. Begin your paper by analyzing the issue positions represented by the ratings of the special interest groups. Keep in mind that your paper is about the political parties in California, not about the individual Member of Congress you have selected to study. Here are some suggestions to guide your analysis:
    1. Identify the partisan issues. These are issue areas in which a majority of Democrats are oppossed by a majority of Republicans). In California abortion usually is such an issue.
    2. Identify the issues which do not seem to divide the parties. These kind of issue are those in which the group ratings for Democrats are not substantially different than for Republicans (i.e., their ratings are with 15 or 25 points of each other).
    3. Identify broad issue areas which produce intraparty conflict. Intra-party differences are present when one or perhaps two Republicans or Democrats are rated by special interest groups that are considerably different than the other members of their party.
    4. NOTE: Recently elected Members of Congress may not be rated by all of the Special Interest Groups you select.
    5. Select eight different Special Interest Groups for your analysis.

  2. The TOTAL campaign contributions from individuals and Political Action Committees (PACs). The contributions are given for thirteen different sectors.Report the percentage of contributions to each candidate from each of the 13 sectors.
    1. Which "sectors" primarily contribute to Republicans and which "sectors" primarily contribute to Democrats?
    2. What sectors contribute to both parties?
    3. What percentage of campaign funds come from PACs and what percentage of campaign funds come from individuals? Is this percentage different for each party?
    4. How much, on the average, does it cost to run for a seat in Congress? Is this amount different for each party?

  3. The demographic composition of electoral constituencies: This data should help you in two ways. First, to identify party differences. Second, if you observed members of the same party who had different special interest group ratings than their colleagues, the population characteristics of their districts may help you to understand intra-party variations. In addition to the census data also examine how safe or competative a district is, and the committee assignments of a Representative. Both of these factors may be helpful in explaining intra-party differences. Remember, when you write your analysis you should be writing about the political parties, not the indivdual districts.

    1. Did you find any population characteristics which are substantially different congressional districts that are represented by Republicans than the by Democrats?

    2. If you found intra-party differences when you examined interest group ratings, are the districts of those Members of Congress different in any way than the other members of the same political party? Are committee assignments different? Is the district more or less electorally competitive than the districts of the other members of the political party?

    3. Include the percentage of votes cast for each Member of Congress or the percentage of voters registered as Democrats and Republicans in each district. This will help you understand if a district is safe or competitive. These data are available from the California State Senate's web page.

    4. Select a minimum of six different characteristics reported in the 2000 census, plus a measure of party voting in the district.

  4. Remember that your research is about political parties, not about individual members of Congress. You will write about individual Representatives and their districts ONLY when that information helps you understand the dynamics of the political parties.

  5. In addition, you should remember that purpose of the tables and/or graphs you include in your paper is to report the data. This is NOT the function of the text. In the text of your paper you should describe the patterns you see from the data in your tables or graphs. Use a minimum of three tables or graphs to report these data. Use a minimum of one table for:

  6. Of course, you are free to use additional tables and/or graphs to support your conclusions. However, your paper must include the three tables listed above.

  7. You will be able to identify party differences and similarities if you group members of a party together. Using simple averages will help you to see the difference and the similarity of the political parties. Remember to include footnotes and a list of the sources for your data you collect and ideas you found in the readings you consult. Also include the source of your data so I can find the data reported on the internet when I read your paper.

  8. The evaluation of the research paper will be based upon three criteria:

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