Ideology, Party, and Voting in the U.S. Congress, 1959-1980

@article{citeulike:2547765, abstract = {Current methods of roll-call analysis have practical as well as theoretical shortcomings. We propose here a method based on a spatial theory of voting that overcomes these problems. We apply metric multidimensional unfolding to interest-group ratings of members of Congress in order to obtain a Euclidean spatial configuration of congressmen. Each roll-call vote is then mapped into the configuration of members in a way consistent with spatial theory. Based on 190,000 ratings issued from 1959 to 1980, our empirical analysis demonstrates that a single liberal-conservative dimension accounts for more than 80\% of the variance in the ratings. A second dimension, associated with party unity, accounts for 7\% of the variance. Approximately 86\% of all roll-call voting for the 22 years of our study is consistent with a simple one-dimensional spatial model. The votes that best fit the liberal-conservative dimension are drawn from the government management, social welfare, and foreign policy areas. The votes that best fit the two-dimensional configurations are drawn from the agricultural area.}, author = {Poole, Keith T. and Daniels, Steven R. }, citeulike-article-id = {2547765}, journal = {The American Political Science Review}, number = {2}, pages = {373--399}, posted-at = {2008-03-17 21:29:47}, priority = {1}, title = {Ideology, Party, and Voting in the U.S. Congress, 1959-1980}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/1956655}, volume = {79}, year = {1985} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2547765 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2547765 TI - Ideology, Party, and Voting in the U.S. Congress, 1959-1980 JF - The American Political Science Review VL - 79 IS - 2 SP - 373 EP - 399 N2 - Current methods of roll-call analysis have practical as well as theoretical shortcomings. We propose here a method based on a spatial theory of voting that overcomes these problems. We apply metric multidimensional unfolding to interest-group ratings of members of Congress in order to obtain a Euclidean spatial configuration of congressmen. Each roll-call vote is then mapped into the configuration of members in a way consistent with spatial theory. Based on 190,000 ratings issued from 1959 to 1980, our empirical analysis demonstrates that a single liberal-conservative dimension accounts for more than 80% of the variance in the ratings. A second dimension, associated with party unity, accounts for 7% of the variance. Approximately 86% of all roll-call voting for the 22 years of our study is consistent with a simple one-dimensional spatial model. The votes that best fit the liberal-conservative dimension are drawn from the government management, social welfare, and foreign policy areas. The votes that best fit the two-dimensional configurations are drawn from the agricultural area. AU - Poole, Keith AU - Daniels, Steven PY - 1985/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/1956655 ER -