Explaining who writes to congressmen

Abstract

The study of constituent-congressman relations often ignores the potential importance of the social nature of the constituency itself as it may influence the relationship. It has been believed that seeking casework was almost completely associated with individual attributes. Furthermore, it was believed that social class was not an important predictor of who would write. This paper shows that social class and the class context of an individual are important contributors to whether or not a person will write to his or her congressman.