Explaining Variation in the Competitiveness of U.S. Senate Elections, 1922-2004

44 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2013 Last revised: 24 Feb 2013

See all articles by Stanley L. Winer

Stanley L. Winer

Carleton University - School of Public Policy and Administration; Carleton University-Department of Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Lawrence W. Kenny

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration - Department of Economics

Bernard Grofman

University of California, Irvine

Date Written: January 5, 2013

Abstract

Understanding the nature of political competition is a central issue in political economy. This paper offers an explanation for observed variation in the competitiveness of U.S. Senate elections since direct elections to the Senate became fully effective in 1922. We deliberately abstract away from candidate-specific factors to look at more general features of the electoral landscape. In the framework we develop, national party-specific constraints on the ideological positioning of local Senate candidates interact with the heterogeneity of state electorates to determine the number of highly competitive electoral contests. The model predicts that the number of local contests that are highly competitive will be greater: (1) if a party's national caucus is ideologically more heterogeneous, signaling a decline in the ability of the national party to impose restrictions on local candidates and/or greater tolerance on the part of contributors of deviation from the national party image; (2) if voters in a state are more ideologically heterogeneous; and (3) if only registered party members may vote in a (closed) state primary. To test these hypotheses, we use a spline estimation procedure to predict the effect of key factors identified by the theoretical framework on the size of a highly competitive segment or set of elections, as opposed to segments where one or the other party dominates. The results provide some support for the hypothesis concerning primary elections, and strong support for the two predictions concerning the heterogeneity of the national party caucus and of local electorates.

Keywords: electoral competition, political competiveness, U.S. Senate electons, ideological heterogeneity, national party constaints, primary elections, spline regression, asymmetric breakpoint

JEL Classification: D72

Suggested Citation

Winer, Stanley L. and Kenny, Lawrence W. and Grofman, Bernard, Explaining Variation in the Competitiveness of U.S. Senate Elections, 1922-2004 (January 5, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2211585 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2211585

Stanley L. Winer

Carleton University - School of Public Policy and Administration ( email )

1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1S5B6
Canada
613-224-1274 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.carleton.ca/winer

Carleton University-Department of Economics ( email )

1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1S5B6
Canada
613-224-1274 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.carleton.ca/winer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Lawrence W. Kenny (Contact Author)

University of Florida - Warrington College of Business Administration - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 117140
Gainesville, FL 32611-7140
United States
352-392-0117 (Phone)
352-392-7860 (Fax)

Bernard Grofman

University of California, Irvine ( email )

School of Social Sciences
SSPB 2291
Irvine, CA 92697
United States
19497331094 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~bgrofman/

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