representatives have had a background as local legislators, local administrators, state
legislators, governors, or members of subnational cabinets (Squire 1988, Berkman and
Eisentein 1999). In as much, strong variation among politicians exists across states
(Squire 1988, Francis and Kenny 1997, Maestas, Maisen and Stone 2005, Maestas, Fulton,
Maisen and Stone 2006), by gender (Palmer and Simon 2003, Lawless and Fox 2005,
Fulton, Maestas, Maisel and Stone 2006), and by race (Victor 2008). These factors also
affect local politicians' decisions to compete in national races. As mentioned, once
politicians are elected to the U.S. House, they have strong incentives to develop stable
legislative careers; however, no uniform pattern should be assumed.
Following Schlesinger's assertions about how calculations affect strategies, it '¾
logically follows that if the structure of opportunities differs, and politicians are
motivated by a diverse set of incentives, the causal chain might differ. Thus, legislators
might be engaged in different dynamics of responsiveness, accountability, and
legislative activity. This was, in fact, the case of the U.S. congressmen before the?
Progressive Era. As the literature shows, "the conventional wisdom... is that the nineteenth
century was far too different to accommodate a strong electoral linkage between individual
representatives and their constituents (Formisano 1974, Huckabee 1989, Polsby 1968, Price
1975, Skeen 1986, Swift 1987-88). Most legislators were not interested in pursuing a career in
Congress and therefore lacked incentives to heed the wishes of their constituents" (Carson and
Engstrom 2005). In fact, party controls of candidacies, predominance of executive
elections, party strip ballots, and limited media outlets should have discouraged
individual-based politics (Bensel 2003, Jacobson 1990, Kemell 1977). Therefore, many of
the concepts, mechanisms, and impheations involved in the Mayhewian model may not
have been the rule in the early U.S. Nonetheless, some recent findings challenge these