National Policies, Agendas, and Polarization in American State Legislatures: 2011 to 2014

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 939-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Garlick
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Level ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
National Policies ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
The Media ◽  
American State

Why are some states polarized and others not? This article argues that state legislators are provided with more information by lobbyists and the media about national policies, or state-level bills that are prominent in the national political discourse. Compared with state-specific issues, this additional information encourages legislators to vote along party lines to secure reelection or prepare for a run for higher office. It identifies national policies using lobbying registrations in state legislatures and Congress to show there is more party difference on roll-call votes on national policies in 25 states over 2011 to 2014. It also argues that the notoriety of national issues may encourage party leaders to put these bills on the agenda to build their party brand, or for individual legislators to raise their profiles. It finds that states with more national agendas have more polarized sessions.

Growing Tea With Subnational Roots: Tea Party Affiliation, Factionalism, and GOP Politics in State Legislatures

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110411
Author(s):  
Stella M. Rouse ◽  
Charles Hunt ◽  
Kristen Essel
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Level ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Original Dataset

Most research has examined the influence of the Tea Party as a social movement or loose organization, but less is known about its influence within legislative party politics, especially at the state level. In this paper, we argue that in this context the Tea Party is primarily an intraparty faction that has caused significant divisions inside the Republican Party. Using an original dataset of legislators across 13 states for the years 2010 to 2013, we examine legislator and district-level characteristics that predict state legislators’ affiliation with the Tea Party. Our results reveal that in some respects legislators affiliated with the Tea Party are a far-right wing of the Republican Party. However, by other measures that capture anti-establishment political sentiment, Tea Party affiliated legislators comprise a factional group attempting to transform the Party in ways that go beyond ideology. These findings have important implications for the future prospects of the GOP.

scholarly journals Lifetime Term Limits: The Impact on Four State Legislatures

2005 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 305-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla L. Southwell ◽  
Eric A. Lindgren ◽  
Ryan A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Term Limits ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Logit Analysis ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
Full Effect ◽  
The Impact

This research examines the roll call voting record of state legislators in Arkansas, California, Michigan, and Missouri in order to assess if there are any substantive differences between those legislators who are nearing retirement due to term limits (“last term” legislators) and those legislators who are at an earlier stage of their legislative careers. These are the only four states in the United States that have lifetime term limits in full effect. Binomial logit analysis of key roll call votes suggests that these “last term” legislators stand apart from their other colleagues on certain issues. This characteristic arises from the increased tendency of last-term legislators to defy the party leadership, albeit on a limited number of bills. This “independent streak” of last-term legislators is even more pronounced among Republican legislators, although this effect is not present in the state of California. Therefore, term limits appear to have a modest, but potentially significant effect on the policy preferences of legislators.

Sub-constituencies and Legislative Responsiveness: Evidence from the States

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 473-487
Author(s):  
Jillian Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Congressional Behavior ◽  
Level Of Analysis

This article tests whether theories of congressional behavior that link legislative responsiveness to the preferences of sub-constituencies at the expense of party preferences apply to the state level. Using ten years of state-level data and roll-call data from nearly 4,000 individual votes on E-Verify legislation, I examine the competing influences of party and constituency preferences on legislative behavior. The results confirm that state legislatures/legislators are responsive to sub-constituencies, but find that responsiveness plays out in different ways depending on the level of analysis and the political party and constituents in question. These results have important implications for our understanding of legislative representation: because responsiveness to sub-constituencies can yield policy results that are antithetical to stated party goals, what appears to be collective irresponsibility from a party may actually be individual legislators striving to be responsive to those constituents that they anticipate will hold them accountable.

Party as Gatekeeper

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Schiller ◽  
Charles Stewart
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
Washington State ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
The Political ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Pressure State

This chapter analyzes the role of the party as a gatekeeper to running for U.S. Senate and delves more deeply into the role of the political party as an organization in the state legislature. It measures the function of partisanship in structuring the organization of state legislatures as well as examines how partisanship influenced the dynamics of Senate elections. It explains the role of party caucuses in the nomination and election stages of indirect elections; shows how party leaders identified and rallied around Senate candidates; and identifies the set of incentives that party leaders used to pressure state legislators to back their preferred Senate candidate. Furthermore, it discusses how candidates for U.S. Senate tried to consolidate support among key party leaders, and how regional party factionalism made that task more difficult. To illustrate these behaviors, the chapter includes case studies from a range of years and states, including New York, Kentucky, Washington State, Florida, and Illinois.

scholarly journals Women and Men's Legislative Success in the 21st Century Professional and Citizen State Legislatures

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 213-231
Author(s):  
Donald E. Whistler ◽  
Mark C. Ellickson
Keyword(s):  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Level ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Personal Attributes ◽  
Lower State ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Women Legislators ◽  
Essential Components

The bill-passage success of women and men legislators in professional and in citizen state legislatures is evaluated using a path analytical model. The model consists of exogenous personal, institutional, district, and state-level variables, an intervening variable of legislative leadership positions, and the direct and indirect effects of these variables on bill-passage success. With data from a 2004 survey of all fifty lower state houses compared to a similar 1992 nationwide survey of state legislators, women legislators display increased legislative positions and bill-passage in both professional and citizen state legislatures. The model predicts that institutional factors and, to a lesser extent, personal attributes are essential components for acquiring legislative positions as well as bill-passage success for women and men in both types of legislatures.

scholarly journals Ideology, Party, and Opinion: Explaining Individual Legislator ACA Implementation Votes in the States

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Shor
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Important Predictor ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Issue Area ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
The Affordable Care Act

Why do state legislators vote the way they do? Which influence is predominant: ideology, party, or public opinion? The implementation votes surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides a unique setting to examine this question, as they make all three considerations highly salient. State roll call votes on ACA implementation were sometimes polarized and sometimes unexpectedly bipartisan. What accounts for the heterogeneity in individual legislator behavior on bills implementing the ACA at the state level? Using new data on legislator ideology and votes from 2011–2015, I show evidence that legislator ideology was by far the most important predictor of voting on implementation votes, far more so than legislator party or public opinion. Moreover, I show the influence of ideology is heterogeneous by issue area and bill.

Fake It “Till You Make It”: Debunking Fake News in a Post-Truth America

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-133
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
American People ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The Media ◽  
The U.S

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, attacks on the media have been relentless. “Fake news” has become a household term, and repeated attempts to break the trust between reporters and the American people have threatened the validity of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this article, the authors trace the development of fake news and its impact on contemporary political discourse. They also outline cutting-edge pedagogies designed to assist students in critically evaluating the veracity of various news sources and social media sites.

A Unified Spatial Model of Congress

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Buchler
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Spatial Model ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Collective Action Problem ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Legislative Session ◽  
Disciplinary System ◽  
Sincere Voting

This chapter presents a unified model of legislative elections, parties, and roll call voting, built around a party leadership election. First, a legislative caucus selects a party leader who campaigns based on a platform of a disciplinary system. Once elected, that leader runs the legislative session, in which roll call votes occur. Then elections occur, and incumbents face re-election with the positions they incrementally adopted. When the caucus is ideologically homogeneous, electorally diverse, and policy motivated, members will elect a leader who solves the collective action problem of sincere voting with “preference-preserving influence.” That leader will threaten to punish legislators who bow to electoral pressure to vote as centrists. Consequently, legislators vote sincerely as extremists and get slightly lower vote shares, but they offset that lost utility with policy gains that they couldn’t have gotten without party influence. Party leaders will rarely pressure legislators to vote insincerely.

Constituency Effects and Legislative Dissent Under Closed-List Proportional Representation

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Eduardo Alemán ◽  
Juan Pablo Micozzi ◽  
Pablo M. Pinto ◽  
Sebastián Saiegh
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Party Line ◽  
Ideological Space ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Unique Dataset

ABSTRACTAccording to conventional wisdom, closed-list proportional representation (CLPR) electoral systems create incentives for legislators to favor the party line over their voters’ positions. However, electoral incentives may induce party leaders to tolerate “shirking” by some legislators, even under CLPR. This study argues that in considering whose deviations from the party line should be tolerated, party leaders exploit differences in voters’ relative electoral influence resulting from malapportionment. We expect defections in roll call votes to be more likely among legislators elected from overrepresented districts than among those from other districts. We empirically test this claim using data on Argentine legislators’ voting records and a unique dataset of estimates of voters’ and legislators’ placements in a common ideological space. Our findings suggest that even under electoral rules known for promoting unified parties, we should expect strategic defections to please voters, which can be advantageous for the party’s electoral fortunes.

scholarly journals Media literacy education for a new prosumer citizenship

Comunicar ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (43) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa García-Ruiz ◽  
Antonia Ramírez-García ◽  
María-del-Mar Rodríguez-Rosell
Keyword(s):  
Media Literacy ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
State Level ◽  
Active Role ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Digital Competence ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Young Audiences ◽  
The Media

Access to technology and the Internet is having a positive impact on all levels, personal, family, professional and social. However, the influence of the media has not been accompanied by the promotion of media literacy. The development of the media skill among citizens, especially young people and children, in order to exercise a critical and active role in relation to the media, is a key development in this society of «media prosumers». This paper discusses the results of a research project at state level, surveying a sample of 2.143 students from Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary School, in this study using a questionnaire ad hoc online. The objetive of the research project is to identify levels of media literacy amongst children and adolescents. It can be seen that a significant portion of the sample is proficient in the media, at an acceptable level. However, and despite belonging to the generation of socalled «digital natives» the sample does not possess the skills necessary to practice as a «media prosumers». We conclude the work highlighting the necessity of complementing the digital competence established in the school curriculum with media literacy as a key element into developing a «prosumer culture». This would resolve the convergence of an urgent need to improve the training of young audiences as responsible citizens capable of consuming and producing media messages in a free, responsible, critical and creative way. El acceso a las tecnologías y a Internet está teniendo consecuencias positivas en todos los niveles, personales, familiares, profesionales y sociales. Sin embargo, la influencia de los medios de comunicación no se ha acompasado con el fomento de la alfabetización mediática. El desarrollo de la competencia mediática en la ciudadanía, y especialmente en los jóvenes y niños para que puedan ejercer de forma crítica y activa su papel ante los medios, se revela como clave en esta sociedad de «prosumidores mediáticos». En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de un proyecto de investigación de ámbito estatal con el objetivo de identificar los niveles de competencia mediática de niños y adolescentes, encuestando a una muestra de 2.143 estudiantes de Educación Infantil, Primaria, Secundaria y Bachillerato, mediante un cuestionario ad hoc online. Puede observarse que una importante parte de la muestra es competente ante los medios, en un nivel aceptable, sin embargo, y a pesar de que pertenecen a la generación de los denominados «nativos digitales», no poseen las habilidades necesarias para ejercer como «prosumidores mediáticos». Concluimos el trabajo destacando la necesidad de complementar la competencia digital establecida en el currículum escolar con la competencia mediática, como elemento clave para desarrollar una «cultura prosumidora», convergencia de imperiosa necesidad para mejorar la formación de las jóvenes audiencias como ciudadanos responsables capaces de consumir y producir mensajes mediáticos de manera libre, responsable, crítica y creativa.

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