Legislative Responsiveness to Black Constituents in Three Deep South States

Studies of legislative responsiveness to black constituents which have been based on Congressional roll calls have consistently found no relationship between the black proportion of the constituency and various measures of responsiveness. This paper examines the roll-call voting behavior of state senators in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana on three areas of interest to blacks: redistributive issues, civil rights and liberties, and issues with an overt racial component. The measure of black voting strength in the constituency has a positive and usually significant impact on support scores in all three legislatures. When only white legislators are analyzed, the black voting strength variable loses explanatory power but generally remains positive.