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Thou Shalt Not Flip Flop: Senators’ Religious Affiliations and Issue Position Consistency
Author(s) -
Mctague John,
PearsonMerkowitz Shanna
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
legislative studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.728
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1939-9162
pISSN - 0362-9805
DOI - 10.1111/lsq.12082
Subject(s) - consistency (knowledge bases) , legislator , voting , representation (politics) , prayer , political science , lesbian , set (abstract data type) , position (finance) , law , social psychology , psychology , theology , sociology , computer science , gender studies , business , philosophy , legislation , politics , finance , artificial intelligence , programming language
Is there a relationship between legislators’ religious affiliations and the consistency of their voting records? Building on the theory of “the personal roots of representation,” we argue that a legislator's likelihood of switching positions depends on whether the issue is central to their personal values. We evaluate this claim using a data set including senators’ religious affiliations and “culture war” votes from 1976 to 2004 and find that different religious groups vary in their voting consistency on issues such as abortion, public prayer, and gay and lesbian rights.