Home Style House Members In Their Districts By Richard F. Fenno

Abstract

This written report is pertaining to the book, Home Style House members in Their Districts, written by Richard F. Fenno, Jr. This book is published by Little, Brown and Company in Canada. it was copyrighted in 1978 by the publisher.

Summary

Richard Fenno begins Home style, stating that an important perception shared by the house members is their constituents within the bounds of their districts. It is important for the house members to understand the composition of their districts constituency. These important factors that compose their constituency are socioeconomic structure, ideology, ethnic, residential patters, religion, partisanship, stability, and diversity. Every district in the United States is composed of different variables,

House Members may choose to base their survival election to election, on a few people or recognition of many people in the district. Thus, every House Member must take the time to figure out which strategy fits those the best. Every House Member must have a clear pathway for the constituents to meet them, and contact them, because constituents want access to their specific House Member. When the house members are at home, in the district, they must explain their Washington DC behavior. When the house members explain their Washington D.C. behavior, they will use keywords like, description, their interpretation, and their justification. House members explain their behavior to their constituents because they can gain trust. It is important for house members to gain trust from their constituents, because the more constituents trust you, the less likely they are to question your voting record. There are two main stages for house members. The first one is constituency careers and the second one is called stylistic change. In the first stage, a house member is trying to build a reliable reputation to win the election. However, in the protectionist stage, they are trying to keep a reputation rather than votes. A house

Fenno, gives a real perception on how politics in the district really functions. Fenno uses research of congressman in action, within their districts to make his case throughout the book. Overall, Richard F. Fenno is highly successful in making clear honest points on how house members function within their district. In chapter one, Fenno speaks about, “House members describe their districts’ internal makeup, using political science’s most familiar demographic and political variables: socioeconomic structure, ideology, ethnicity residential patterns, religion, partisanship, stability, diversity…” (pg. 2). Richard Fenno’s research puts in play that house members must understand the different variables of their constituency within a district. The whole idea of a house member considering demographic and political variables is to get closer and to understand his or her district, in order to obtain votes. Fenno’s main idea is important to understand, because as a house member, it is important to be able to relate to his or her district to gain more constituents. Fenno then makes an interesting point, “this inner constituency will probably include his earliest supporters….who tendered identifiably strong support in his first campaign. From its ranks will most likely come the bulk of his financial help...From its ranks will least likely come his electoral challenger” (pg. 18). Fenno is trying to explain how early supporters play an important role