Ideology and the US Congressional Vote

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Shor ◽  
Jon C. Rogowski

A large class of theoretical models posits that voters choose candidates on the basis of issue congruence, but convincing empirical tests of this key claim remain elusive. The most persistent difficulty is obtaining comparable spatial estimates for winning and losing candidates, as well as voters. We address these issues using candidate surveys to characterize the electoral platforms for winners and losers, and large issue batteries in 2008 and 2010 to estimate voter preferences. Questions that were answered by both candidates and citizens allow us to jointly scale these estimates. We find robust evidence that vote choice in congressional elections is both strongly associated with spatial proximity and that individual-level and contextual variables commonly associated with congressional voting behavior condition the magnitude of its importance. Our results have important implications for theories of voter decision-making and electoral institutions.

2008 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES H. FOWLER ◽  
LAURA A. BAKER ◽  
CHRISTOPHER T. DAWES

The decision to vote has puzzled scholars for decades. Theoretical models predict little or no variation in participation in large population elections and empirical models have typically accounted for only a relatively small portion of individual-level variance in turnout behavior. However, these models have not considered the hypothesis that part of the variation in voting behavior can be attributed to genetic effects. Matching public voter turnout records in Los Angeles to a twin registry, we study the heritability of political behavior in monozygotic and dizygotic twins. The results show that a significant proportion of the variation in voting turnout can be accounted for by genes. We also replicate these results with data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and show that they extend to a broad class of acts of political participation. These are the first findings to suggest that humans exhibit genetic variation in their tendency to participate in political activities.


2002 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 123-139
Author(s):  
Seth C. McKee

This article analyzes the impact of race-based redistricting and the Republican trend on party competition in races for the U.S. House of Representatives in the South from 1988 to 2000. The region is divided into sub-regions (Deep and Peripheral) in order to show that the combination of reapportionment and newly created majority black districts disproportionately crowds out white Democratic representatives in the Deep South. It is argued that race-based redistricting serves as an accelerating mechanism that hastens the secular realignment of whites into the Republican Party. Aggregate and individual level data are presented to illustrate the effect of the Republican trend and majority black districts on party competition and voting behavior in congressional elections.


Author(s):  
Dennis C. Spies

The chapter summarizes the New Progressive Dilemma (NPD) debate, identifying three arguments from comparative welfare state and party research likely to be relevant to the relationship between immigration and welfare state retrenchment: public opinion, welfare institutions, and political parties. Alignment of anti-immigrant sentiments and welfare support varies considerably between countries, especially between the US and Europe, leading to different party incentives vis-à-vis welfare state retrenchment. The chapter introduces insights from comparative welfare state and party research to the debate, discussing inter alia, political parties in terms of welfare retrenchment, immigrants as a voter group, and cross-national variation of existing welfare institutions. It addresses the complex debates around attitudinal change caused by immigration, levels of welfare support, voting behavior, and social expenditures. Combining these strands of literature, a common theoretical framework is developed that is subsequently applied to both the US and Western European context.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
ERIK NEIMANNS

Abstract Research on the politics of social investment finds public opinion to be highly supportive of expansive reforms and expects this support to matter for the politics of expanding social investment. Expanding social investment, it is argued, should be particularly attractive to left-wing voters and parties because of the egalitarian potential of such policies. However, few studies have examined to what extent individual preferences concerning social investment really matter politically. In this paper, I address this research gap for the crucial policy field of childcare by examining how individual-level preferences for expanding childcare provision translate into voting behavior. Based on original survey data from eight European countries, I find that preferences to expand public childcare spending indeed translate into electoral support for the left. However, this link from preferences to votes turns out to be socially biased. Childcare preferences are much more decisive for voting the further up individuals are in the income distribution. This imperfect transmission from preferences to voting behavior implies that political parties could have incentives to target the benefits of childcare reforms to their more affluent voters. My findings help to explain why governments frequently fail to reduce social inequality of access to seemingly egalitarian childcare provision.


Author(s):  
Diana R. Withrow ◽  
Neal D. Freedman ◽  
James T. Gibson ◽  
Mandi Yu ◽  
Anna M. Nápoles ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose To inform prevention efforts, we sought to determine which cancer types contribute the most to cancer mortality disparities by individual-level education using national death certificate data for 2017. Methods Information on all US deaths occurring in 2017 among 25–84-year-olds was ascertained from national death certificate data, which include cause of death and educational attainment. Education was classified as high school or less (≤ 12 years), some college or diploma (13–15 years), and Bachelor's degree or higher (≥ 16 years). Cancer mortality rate differences (RD) were calculated by subtracting age-adjusted mortality rates (AMR) among those with ≥ 16 years of education from AMR among those with ≤ 12 years. Results The cancer mortality rate difference between those with a Bachelor's degree or more vs. high school or less education was 72 deaths per 100,000 person-years. Lung cancer deaths account for over half (53%) of the RD for cancer mortality by education in the US. Conclusion Efforts to reduce smoking, particularly among persons with less education, would contribute substantially to reducing educational disparities in lung cancer and overall cancer mortality.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110091
Author(s):  
Magdalena Wojcieszak ◽  
Ericka Menchen-Trevino ◽  
Joao F. F. Goncalves ◽  
Brian Weeks

The online environment dramatically expands the number of ways people can encounter news but there remain questions of whether these abundant opportunities facilitate news exposure diversity. This project examines key questions regarding how internet users arrive at news and what kinds of news they encounter. We account for a multiplicity of avenues to news online, some of which have never been analyzed: (1) direct access to news websites, (2) social networks, (3) news aggregators, (4) search engines, (5) webmail, and (6) hyperlinks in news. We examine the extent to which each avenue promotes news exposure and also exposes users to news sources that are left leaning, right leaning, and centrist. When combined with information on individual political leanings, we show the extent of dissimilar, centrist, or congenial exposure resulting from each avenue. We rely on web browsing history records from 636 social media users in the US paired with survey self-reports, a unique data set that allows us to examine both aggregate and individual-level exposure. Visits to news websites account for about 2 percent of the total number of visits to URLs and are unevenly distributed among users. The most widespread ways of accessing news are search engines and social media platforms (and hyperlinks within news sites once people arrive at news). The two former avenues also increase dissimilar news exposure, compared to accessing news directly, yet direct news access drives the highest proportion of centrist exposure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 303-303
Author(s):  
HwaJung Choi ◽  
Robert Schoeni ◽  
Tsai-Chin Cho ◽  
Kenneth Langa

Abstract The paper’s goal is to assess whether and, if so, the extent to which prevalence in disability of adults near retirement ages in the US increased over time compared to their peers in England and examine income group differences in the relative trends. This study uses 2002-2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) focusing on adults aged 55-64. Annual percent changes over the period of 2002-2016 for limitations in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and activities of daily living (ADL) are estimated for each survey (HRS and ELSA) using multivariable logistic regressions to adjust for individual-level characteristics While disability prevalence of adults ages 55-64 in England improved over the years of 2002-2016 (annual % change= -2.01 for IADL; - 2.53 for ADL), disability prevalence of US adults has not improved and in fact even worsened in terms of IADL (annual % change= +1.35). There are substantial variations in the IADL/ADL trends by income groups. In the US, the adverse trends in disability were more pronounced among the lowest income groups (annual % change in IADL=1.76 for bottom 20% vs. -2.08 for top 20%; annual % change in ADL=1.08 for bottom 20% vs. -2.08 for top 20%). In England, the disability status improved over time for all but the lowest income group. We will examine further to identify specific factors contributing to divergent/convergent trends in disability between the US and England.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 58-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Tarhini ◽  
Nalin Asanka Gamagedara Arachchilage ◽  
Ra'ed Masa'deh ◽  
Muhammad Sharif Abbasi

Previous research shows that selecting an appropriate theory or model has always remained a critical task for IS researchers. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are few papers that review and compare the acceptance theories and models at the individual level. Hence, this article aims to overcome this problem by providing a critical review of eight of the most influential theories that have been used to predict and explain human behaviour towards adoption of various technologies at the individual level. This article also summarizes their evolution; highlight the key constructs, extensions, strengths, and criticisms from a selective list of published articles appeared in the literature related to IS. This review provides a holistic picture for future researchers in selecting appropriate single/multiple theoretical models/constructs based on their strengths and weaknesses and in terms of predictive power and path significance. It is concluded that a well-established theory should consider the personal, social, cultural, technological, organizational and environmental factors


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Allen L Tran ◽  
Trần Đan Tâm ◽  
Hà Thúc Dũng ◽  
Nguyễn Cúc Trâm

This article examines drug adherence in relation to changing patterns of medical pluralism and neoliberal reforms among psychiatric patients in postreform Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We conducted 39 in-depth interviews and 21 follow-up interviews with individuals prescribed psychiatric medication on an outpatient basis in 2016 to identify patterns of nonadherence, which was operationalized as taking medications according to doctors’ prescriptions at the three-month follow-up interval. Patients adapt or reject their medication prescriptions due to (1) concerns about biomedical drugs and adverse drug reactions, (2) local concepts of psychic distress and selfhood, and (3) the social context of medicine taking. The dominant theoretical models of drug adherence focus on individual-level predictors. However, situating drug adherence in its political-economic context highlights the relationship between medicine and neoliberal modernity that underlies adherence. Examining the intersection of multiple medication regimens and political regimes, we argue that nonadherence is rooted in a complex layering of medical traditions and modernist projects of the self. The reception of new biomedical drugs in Vietnam is shaped by not only folk theories of illness but also a changing cultural politics of the self.


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