Electoral rewards for political grandstanding.

ABSTRACT: Many assumed that legislators send political messages or even grandstand in expectation of gaining electoral rewards. However, largely due to a lack of proper data and measurements, this assumption has not been tested. Publicized committee hearings provide a unique environment to consistently observe changes in legislators' speech patterns and test this assumption. Using House committee hearing transcripts from 1997 to 2016 and Grandstanding Scores-which capture the intensity of political messages conveyed in members' statements in hearings-I find that an increase in a member's messaging efforts in a given Congress leads to increased vote share in the following election. This suggests that legislators' grandstanding remarks, often regarded as cheap talk, can be an effective electoral strat

SUBMITTER: Park JY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10151507 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature