Military Base Closures and the 1996 Congressional Elections

• Autores: Michael S. Rocca
• Localización: Legislative studies quarterly, ISSN 0362-9805, Vol. 28, N. 4, 2003, págs. 529-550
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article examines the extent to which changes in distributional benefits influence congressional election outcomes. Although conventional wisdom holds that a direct link exists between distributional benefits and electoral outcomes (Mayhew 1974b), recent evidence suggests that this link only exists under certain circumstances (Stein and Bickers 1994). In this article, I use 1995 military base closures to test the nature of the relationship. Contrary to recent research on the politics of pork barreling, my findings indicate support for a direct relationship between major base realignments and closures and House electoral outcomes. Specifically, major realignments and closures significantly decreased first-year Democrats' vote margins in the 1996 House elections.