Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While estimating ideal points in recent congresses is non-problematic (Poole 2005), determining support along specific issue dimensions can be difficult when only a limited number of votes are available. This is the case with votes on lesbian and gay rights in Congress. Cosponsorship data provides another manifestation of support in a policy area and early support for legislation implies greater support along a policy dimension. I merge the date a member of Congress cosponsors legislation into a standard Bayesian MCMC item response model (Clinton, Jackman, and Rivers 2004) to obtain improved policy support scores for members of Congress and compare these to the Human Rights Campaign Scorecard traditionally used as measure of support for lesbian and gay rights. The scores show a sharp consolidation of the Republican Party at an anti-gay pole after the 1992 Republican Convention and the election of a Republican congress in 1994. This suggests that Republicans used their agenda setting powers to display a unified front against gay rights in order to appeal to anti-gay religious activists.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The political atmosphere in Congress following Reconstruction through the early 1920s, was marked by high levels of partisan polarization. More specifically, we observe significant intraparty homogeneity coupled with interparty heterogeneity. Most inquiries about the role of parties during the era, though, focus almost exclusively on the Republicans and the leadership of Reed and Cannon. Little has been done to explore the behavior of congressional Democrats during the era. In this paper, we compare Democratic and Republican party cohesion scores to determine whether Democratic leaders utilized some of the tools associated with Conditional Party Government. We analyze the parties’ committee assignments to determine whether service on committees was contingent on party loyalty. We find significant differences between the parties’ assignment practices and found that Republicans placed a premium on party loyalty, while the Democrats did not. We conclude that important differences in Democratic and Republican constituencies best explains the different effects.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: On grounds of inclusion of undesirable votes (type I errors) and exclusion of desirable votes (type II errors), we question the convention of selecting only final-passage votes for roll call analysis. We propose an alternative selection method based on the estimated salience and strategic significance of roll calls and argue that this method reduces type I and type II errors. We demonstrate that selection of roll calls based on alternative criteria has a major bearing on the asymmetry of partisan roll rates and, we conjecture that its application will also be substantively significant in other modes of inquiry.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Proceeding