Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T22:05:57.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Estimating Party Influence on Roll Call Voting: Regression Coefficients versus Classification Success

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2002

James M. Snyder Jr.  and
Tim Groseclose
James M. Snyder Jr.
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tim Groseclose
Affiliation:
Hoover Institution and Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contrary to the claims of McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal, our method does not estimate the ideal points of moderates significantly less accurately than the ideal points of extremists. This is true for at least two reasons: (1) there is significant randomness in voting; as a consequence, on a lopsided vote moderates often vote with the extremists; and (2) our data set includes some roll calls that require a supermajority for passage; for these we define a 50%–50% roll call as lopsided. We also show that the classification-success method of McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal severely understates the presence of party influence. Furthermore, we show that a proper interpretation of some of their results reveals a significant amount of party influence in Congress.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 95 , Issue 3 , September 2001 , pp. 689 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansolabehere, Stephen, Snyder, James M., Jr., and Charles Stewart III. N.d. “The Effects of Party and Preferences on Congressional Roll Call Voting.” Legislative Studies Quarterly. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., and Wright, Gerald C.. 1997. “Voters, Candidates, and Issues in Congressional Elections.” In Congress Reconsidered. 6th ed., ed. Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I.. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press. Pp. 132–61.Google Scholar
Heckman, James, and Snyder, James M., Jr. 1997. “Linear Probability Models of the Demand for Attributes with an Empirical Application to Estimating the Preferences of Legislators.” Rand Journal of Economics. Special issue: S142–89.Google Scholar
Levitt, Steven D. 1996. “How Do Senators Vote? Disentangling the Role of Voter Preferences, Party Affiliation, and Senator Ideology.” American Economic Review 86 (June): 425–41.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 2001. “The Hunt for Party Discipline in Congress.” American Political Science Review 95 (September): 673–88.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 1991. “On Dimensionalizing Roll Call Votes in the U.S. Congress.” American Political Science Review 85 (December): 955–75.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 1997. Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Howard. 1992. “The Unidimensional Congress Is Not the Result of Selective Gatekeeping.” American Journal of Political Science 36 (January): 31–5.Google Scholar
Snyder, James M., Jr. 1992. “Artificial Extremism in Interest Group Ratings.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 17 (August): 319–45.Google Scholar
Snyder, James M., Jr., and Groseclose, Tim. 2000. “Estimating Party Influence in Congressional Roll Call Voting.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (January): 193–211.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.