Incivility in Congressional Communication

摘要

Incivility is a significant feature of the contemporary Congress. In this dissertation, I treat incivility as a form of strategic behavior that members of Congress use, under certain circumstances, to pursue their goals. I examine incivility in three distinct venues of congressional communication. I begin by measuring and explaining incivility in campaign communication. I find evidence indicating that members of Congress strategically violate norms of civility in response to the type of electoral threat they face. Members who face the greatest electoral threat from within their own party target uncivil campaign messages to people who are relatively likely to participate in primary elections, while members who face the greatest electoral threat from the other party target uncivil campaign messages to a broader audience. Next, I turn to incivility in floor speeches. I find evidence indicating that minority party and ideologically extreme members respond to their disadvantaged position in the policymaking process through being particularly likely to violate norms of civility in floor speeches. I then examine incivility on partisan cable news networks, which are known for abandoning norms of civility. I find evidence indicating that ideologically extreme senators and party leaders tend to appeal to party activists in the mass public through violating norms of civility during interviews. Finally, I find that the more senators appear on cable news, the more they gain their campaign funds from outside of their state. This indicates that party activists respond favorably to members who appear frequently on uncivil media, through providing these members with key campaign resources. I conclude that incivility in Congress is a form of a collective action problem. Incivility damages the collective reputation of Congress, but my dissertation identifies numerous instances in which individual members use incivility in attempting to achieve their own individual goals.