Replication Data for: Talking Shops: The Effects of Caucus Discussion on Policy Coalitions

Group discussion of legislation is a defining feature of parliaments and legislatures. However, there is little evidence that these conferences influence legislators' policy positions or the disposition of legislation. This paper examines how, and to what extent, group discussion influences policy coalitions. It reports results from two field experiments in which state legislators spoke about randomly selected bills in a bipartisan caucus. Chosen bills received twice as much support from caucus members as unselected bills. Estimated effects are similar in magnitude within and across party lines. Discussion did not appear to affect bill-level outcomes such as bill content or bill passage, but power limitations make studying such policy-level outcomes infeasible. Qualitative data from the experiments suggest that reputation and reciprocity are key mechanisms underlying influence, but that partisan voters and media are obstacles to bipartisanship in a contemporary American legislature.立法集体讨论是议会与立法机构的标志性特征。然而目前鲜有实证证据表明，这类集体讨论能够影响议员的政策立场或法案的处置进程。本研究旨在探究集体讨论如何以及在何种程度上影响政策联盟的构建。本文报告了两项田野实验（field experiment）的研究结果：实验中，州议员在两党党团会议上就随机抽选的法案进行发言研讨。实验结果显示，被抽选的法案获得的党团成员支持率为未被抽选法案的两倍。估算得到的效应强度在党派内部与跨党派场景下并无显著差异。集体讨论似乎未对法案层面的结果（如法案内容或法案通过率）产生影响，但受限于统计效力不足，针对这类政策层面结果的研究难以实施。实验获取的质性数据表明，声誉与互惠是影响效应背后的核心作用机制，但在当代美国立法体系中，党派选民与媒体仍是两党合作的主要阻碍。