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The Impact of Party and Ideology on Roll‐Call Voting in State Legislatures
Author(s) -
JENKINS SHAN
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.3162/036298006x201797
Subject(s) - legislator , legislature , ideology , voting , political science , variance (accounting) , state (computer science) , context (archaeology) , voting behavior , political economy , order (exchange) , public administration , economics , law , politics , accounting , computer science , legislation , finance , paleontology , algorithm , biology
To assess the relative impact of party and ideology on legislative behavior, I utilize survey‐based measures of legislator ideology to examine voting in five state legislatures. The results suggest that, although party and ideology both influence voting, the impact of party is greater. The magnitude of this impact varies, however, from chamber to chamber. The activity of parties in the electoral arena explains part of this variance, with more active parties having more influence. Thus, research on legislative behavior should focus on the context surrounding the decision‐making process in order for us to understand the influences on voting.