Race, contact effects, and effective lawmaking in congressional committee hearings
By: Lollis, Jacob M
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: Political Research Quarterly Description: 78(1), Mar, 2025: p.102-119.Subject(s): Congress, Committees, Race and ethnic politics, Effective lawmaking, Text-as-data
In:
Political Research QuarterlySummary: Though there is strong evidence that nonwhite lawmakers introduce more racially salient legislation than white lawmakers, it is less clear whether race is a significant predictor of other legislative behavior. Given mixed findings in existing research, lawmakers’ actions in committee offer a new test of how race shapes legislative behavior. I develop new, original measures identifying race references in more than 1.4 million congressional committee hearing statements. I find that nonwhite lawmakers discuss race more frequently than white lawmakers in hearings, though white lawmakers are more likely to mention race in racially diverse hearings due to contact effects. Using a novel measure of race-issue bills, I demonstrate that lawmakers’ race statements in hearings are linked to policy representation. These findings explain how racial diversity in legislatures affects legislative speech and policy representation.- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10659129241289953
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | 78(1), Mar, 2025: p.102-119 | Available | AR136157 |
Though there is strong evidence that nonwhite lawmakers introduce more racially salient legislation than white lawmakers, it is less clear whether race is a significant predictor of other legislative behavior. Given mixed findings in existing research, lawmakers’ actions in committee offer a new test of how race shapes legislative behavior. I develop new, original measures identifying race references in more than 1.4 million congressional committee hearing statements. I find that nonwhite lawmakers discuss race more frequently than white lawmakers in hearings, though white lawmakers are more likely to mention race in racially diverse hearings due to contact effects. Using a novel measure of race-issue bills, I demonstrate that lawmakers’ race statements in hearings are linked to policy representation. These findings explain how racial diversity in legislatures affects legislative speech and policy representation.- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10659129241289953
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