Why Roll Calls? A Model of PositionTaking in Legislative Voting and Elections,The

Midwest Political Science Association for comments. We develop a rationale for position-taking preferences in legislatures using a formal model of legislative vote-buying and elections. In our model, citizens and an interest group are motivated by policy, while legislators are motivated by holding office. The group may attempt to buy legislators ’ votes by offering contracts based on their votes. If citizens cannot condition their re-election votes on legislators ’ roll calls, then in equilibrium the group will buy its ideal policy and most legislators are voted out of office. If citizens can condition their votes on legislators ’ roll calls, then policies are more moderate and more legislators are re-elected. Thus an endogenous preference for position-taking arises in a legislature with public roll calls, and both legislators and citizens will prefer such “open ” proceedings ex ante. 1