Electoral Benefits of Pork Barrel Politics in the US

Stephanie Mae Pedron; Lara Wessel

doi:10.1177/14789299251323452

Electoral Benefits of Pork Barrel Politics in the US

Stephanie Mae Pedron, Lara Wessel

Political Science & International Studies

Ohio State University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Systematic review › peer-review

Abstract

The conventional wisdom of pork barrel politics is that legislators engage in it to aid their bids for reelection. This review article examines how researchers have tested this conventional wisdom to date, the role of legislator partisanship on the benefits derived, and identifies gaps in the current scholarship.

Original language	English
Journal	Political Studies Review
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299251323452
State	Accepted/In press - 2025

Scopus Subject Areas

Sociology and Political Science
Political Science and International Relations

Keywords

congress
credit claiming
distributive politics
electoral incentives
pork barrel politics

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10.1177/14789299251323452

Cite this

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title = "Electoral Benefits of Pork Barrel Politics in the US",

abstract = "The conventional wisdom of pork barrel politics is that legislators engage in it to aid their bids for reelection. This review article examines how researchers have tested this conventional wisdom to date, the role of legislator partisanship on the benefits derived, and identifies gaps in the current scholarship.",

keywords = "congress, credit claiming, distributive politics, electoral incentives, pork barrel politics",

author = "Pedron, {Stephanie Mae} and Lara Wessel",

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language = "English",

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N2 - The conventional wisdom of pork barrel politics is that legislators engage in it to aid their bids for reelection. This review article examines how researchers have tested this conventional wisdom to date, the role of legislator partisanship on the benefits derived, and identifies gaps in the current scholarship.

AB - The conventional wisdom of pork barrel politics is that legislators engage in it to aid their bids for reelection. This review article examines how researchers have tested this conventional wisdom to date, the role of legislator partisanship on the benefits derived, and identifies gaps in the current scholarship.

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KW - distributive politics

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Electoral Benefits of Pork Barrel Politics in the US

Abstract

Scopus Subject Areas

Keywords

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