Can Latent Groups Influence Policy Decisions? The Case of Telecommunications Policy

Electoral constituencies recognize favorable policy outcomes in high-turnout jurisdictions. In this article I evaluate whether underlying institutions might provide a finer explanation of this relationship. To do so I formally examine variation in telecommunications policy across U.S. states. The resulting evidence is consistent with residential customers recognizing more favorable policy when institutions reduce voting's resource cost (measured by registration rules) or increase its nonpecuniary benefit (measured by Perot support). Measures of either force explain significantly more variation in the present data than does a measure of actual participation (i.e., turnout). Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.