In this second edition to a book that has now achieved canonical status, David R. Mayhew argues that the principal motivation of legislators is re-election and that the pursuit of this goal affects the way they behave and the way that they make public policy. In a new foreword for this edition, R. Douglas Arnold discusses why the book revolutionized the study of Congress and how it has stood the test of time. The book also contains a new preface by the author. Winner of the Washington Monthly Political Book Award for 1974

David R. Mayhew, Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, is the author of many books, including Divided We Govern, America's Congress, and Electoral Realignments, all published by Yale University Press.

"Any short list of major analyses of Congress must of necessity include David Mayhew's Congress: The Electoral Connection. It is a pleasure to have this aged-in-the cask classic reissued, and the foreword by Arnold and preface by Mayhew are a valuable bonus." Fred Greenstein"