Religion and Perceptions of Candidates' Ideologies in United States House Elections

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Jacobsmeier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
Influence Perceptions

AbstractUsing data from the American National Election Studies, Poole-Rosenthal DW-Nominate scores, and data on the religious affiliations of members of the United States House of Representatives, I show that religion has important independent effects on the evaluation of candidates' ideologies. The results suggest that candidates affiliated with evangelical Christianity will tend to be seen as more conservative than ideologically similar candidates from mainline Protestant denominations. Jewish candidates, in contrast, will tend to be seen as more liberal than ideologically similar mainline Protestants. Additionally, the use of religion-based stereotypes varies with frequency of church attendance. These findings attest to the external validity of recent experiment-based research on religion-based political stereotypes. The approach employed here also allows for the estimation of the magnitude of the effects of such stereotypes. The results shed light on both the importance of religion in election campaigns and the factors that influence perceptions of candidates' ideologies more generally.

scholarly journals Moving a Mountain: The Extraordinary Trajectory of Same-Sex Marriage Approval in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311772765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Election Studies

Most public opinion attitudes in the United States are reasonably stable over time. Using data from the General Social Survey and the American National Election Studies, I quantify typical change rates across all attitudes. I quantify the extent to which change in same-sex marriage approval (and liberalization in attitudes toward gay rights in general) are among a small set of rapid changing outliers in surveyed public opinions. No measured public opinion attitude in the United States has changed more and more quickly than same-sex marriage. I use survey data from Newsweek to illustrate the rapid increase in the 1980s and 1990s in Americans who had friends or family who they knew to be gay or lesbian and demonstrate how contact with out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians was influential. I discuss several potential historical and social movement theory explanations for the rapid liberalization of attitudes toward gay rights in the United States, including the surprising influence of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

Ideology, Vote Choice, and Bureaucracy Across Time: A Longitudinal Test of the Bureau Voting Model in the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 812-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bednarczuk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Logit Models ◽  
Ordered Logit ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
Generalized Ordered Logit ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
Voting Model

How applicable is the bureau voting model to the United States? Although the literature suggests that government employees are more liberal and vote more Democratic, these findings have recently become inconsistent stateside. In addition, there are strong counterarguments to the premises of the bureau voting model. It is hypothesized that bureaucrats are neither more likely to support Democrats nor more liberal. Using data from the American National Election Studies covering a 30-year period, probit and generalized ordered logit models support these new hypotheses. These results suggest that the bureau voting model may need to be refined for the United States.

scholarly journals Ideological Boundaries of Status Advantages: Legislative Effectiveness in the United States House of Representatives

2020 ◽  
pp. 017084062090720
Author(s):  
Francois Collet ◽  
Gianluca Carnabuci ◽  
Gokhan Ertug ◽  
Tengjian Zou
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Status ◽  
United States Congress ◽  
Organizational Influence ◽  
The Status ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Legislative Effectiveness

Prior research assumes that high-status actors have greater organizational influence than lower-status ones, that is, it is easier for the former to get their ideas and initiatives adopted by the organization than it is for the latter. Drawing from the literature on ideology, we posit that the status–influence link is contingent on actors’ ideological position. Specifically, status confers organizational influence to the degree that the focal actor is ideologically mainstream. The more an actor’s ideology deviates from the mainstream the less will her status translate into increased organizational influence. We find support for this hypothesis using data on the work of legislators in the House of Representatives in the United States Congress. By illuminating how and under what conditions status leads to increased influence, this study qualifies and extends current understandings of the role of status in organizations.

On the Representativeness of Voters

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan E. Leighley ◽  
Jonathan Nagler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Election Studies

This chapter considers a critical aspect of the potential consequences of turnout, that is, whether voters are representative of nonvoters with respect to their preferred policy positions. It briefly reviews the handful of studies that have addressed the question of the representativeness of voters, and then replicate some of Wolfinger and Rosenstone's (1980) evidence for 1972 with 2008 data. It then tests expectations regarding the distinctiveness of voters' preferences using data from the 1972–2008 American National Election Studies, as well as the 2004 National Annenberg Election Study, comparing the policy preferences of voters and nonvoters on redistributive issues, as well as a variety of other policy issues. The chapter finds concludes that the seeming consensus that it would not matter if everyone voted is simply wrong, and has been wrong for a long time. That these differences have been ignored in political discourse as well as scholarly research is all the more striking given the increase in economic inequality experienced in the United States.

scholarly journals Conflicted Religionists: Measuring Political Backlash on Salient Issues

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110180
Author(s):  
Sean Bock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Political Backlash

Scholars have pointed to “political backlash” as a key reason for why people leave religion in the United States. This study adds to the growing body of work that emphasizes backlash to localized conditions, rather than national-level phenomena, by demonstrating the importance of conflict on salient issues within churches. Using data from the Baylor Religion Survey, the author exploits a unique set of items to analyze what he calls “conflicted religionists”—those who experience attitudinal conflict with their churches—and measures conflict on two salient issues: same-sex marriage and abortion. The author finds that there is a considerable proportion of conflicted religionists and that the probability of experiencing conflict varies drastically across different groups in the sample. In line with past work, he demonstrates that experiencing conflict is significantly associated with lower church attendance. He concludes with a discussion of the possible pathways available to conflicted religionists.

Freshman Committee Assignments and Re-election in the United States House of Representatives

1972 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 996-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Bullock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Committee Assignment ◽  
Constituency Service ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Committee Assignments

Two students of the committee assignment process, Nicholas Masters and Charles Clapp, as well as some congressmen, assert that the most crucial factor in filling committee vacancies is whether the appointment will enhance the recipient's chance of re-election. This statement is tested using data for Republican and Northern Democratic freshmen elected to the House between 1947 and 1967.The freshmen are grouped on the basis of assumptions about which assignment or assignments should help them win re-election. When narrowly elected and safe freshmen are compared, there is no evidence that the former more frequently receive assignments likely to facilitate re-election. Thus there is no support for the Masters-Clapp proposition.Investigation further reveals that even those freshmen from marginal districts who are awarded “good” appointments are not re-elected significantly more often than are comparable newcomers having less favorable assignments. Committee assignments therefore seem relatively unimportant in determining whether a congressman wins a sophomore term. Indeed, more than 70 per cent of the freshmen who triumphed in hotly contested races to reach the House are returned. When these incumbents are defeated it is typically as a result of nation-wide forces over which they exercise little if any control.The implications of this research are that congressmen have a greater range of alternatives than is often thought. Even the narrowly elected novice is relatively free to seek appointment to committees for reasons other than constituency service or promotion. Largely symbolic activities are available through which concern for the district and its problems and needs can be demonstrated, thereby freeing much of the congressman's time and attention to pursue other less parochial goals.

Silence of the Land: On the Historical Irrelevance of Territory to Congressional Districting and Political Representation in the United States

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Communities Of Interest

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.

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