A Comparative Analysis of Senate-House Voting on Economic and Welfare Policy, 1953–1964

The manifest purpose of the roll call analysis described in this paper is that of demonstrating the existence of two policy dimensions in Congressional voting: economic and welfare. Support is sought for two propositions:I. Each of the two dimensions appears in both the House and the Senate in each of six Congresses, the 83rd through the 88th, 1953–1964;II. Roll call voting on the economic policy dimension is more heavily influenced by partisan differences while welfare policy voting is more subject to constituency constraints.The second proposition is significant as an attempt to distinguish between a policy dimension on which partisan differences appear to be responsible for the greater part of the voting variation, and a policy dimension on which constituency factors have a substantial impact. This bears upon the more general concern with distinguishing those party differences in voting behavior which are a function of an independent partisan factor from those which may be attributed to any number of factors correlated with partisan affiliation. This problem will be viewed from different analytic perspectives, including an analysis of the effects of intra-party and inter-party personnel turnover on the policy positions taken by representatives of the same constituency.

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The Linkage between Constituency Attitudes and Congressional Voting Behavior: A Causal Model

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1953807 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 60 (1) ◽

pp. 66-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Charles F. Cnudde ◽

Donald J. McCrone

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

Political Science ◽

Voting Behavior ◽

Main Body ◽

Roll Call ◽

Political Issues ◽

Congressional Voting ◽

Theoretical Question ◽

The Individual ◽

Policy Agreement

Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes' publication in 1963 of a preliminary report on the Survey Research Center's representation study is an important landmark in the development of empirical political theory. That report addressed itself to the crucial theoretical question of the linkage between mass political opinions and governmental policy-making. More specifically, the report found considerable policy agreement between Congressional roll call votes and the attitudes of the individual Congressman's constituency. This policy agreement was then interpreted through several causal paths and the Congressman's perception of his constituency's attitudes was found to be the main path by which the local district ultimately influenced Congressional outputs.The main body of the report dealt with the broad civil rights issue dimension, and, by specifying the perceptual path by which constituency influence is brought to bear, documented the effect of political issues despite the generally low level of political information held at the mass level. Thus, the Congressmen, through their broad cognitive evaluations, were aware of how far they could proceed in determining their civil rights roll call votes on the basis of their own attitudes before risking the displeasure of their constituents.Beyond such major substantive contributions the representation study introduced to political science a variance-apportioning technique similar to that developed by Sewall Wright, in 1921. Through this variance-apportioning technique, the importance of the perceptual link was isolated and evaluated. This study, then, symbolizes the growing recognition in political science of the importance of more sophisticated methodological tools in the process of theory building.

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Inter-Party Constituency Differences and Congressional Voting Behavior

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1952718 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 57-61 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lewis A. Froman

Keyword(s):

Voting Behavior ◽

National Level ◽

The United States ◽

Political Activity ◽

Social Environments ◽

Roll Call ◽

Congressional Districts ◽

Small Areas ◽

Party Differences ◽

Democrats And Republicans

Academic studies of roll-call voting in Congress have tended to stress two factors: (1) the substantial degree of party cohesion in Congress on most issues, and (2) the importance of constituency factors in explaining deviations from party votes within parties. These studies indicate that party is the single most important predictor of roll-call behavior, and that constituency factors explain most of the deviation from party votes. No such study, however, describes constituency differences between Democrats and Republicans on the national level—that is, inter-party differences on constituency variables as opposed to intra-party differences. We will attempt, in this study, to demonstrate that differences between Democrats and Republicans are not merely a matter of party label or ideology (few really contend otherwise), but that they are rooted in basic differences in the kinds of constituencies from which Democrats and Republicans come. We will then go on to show that these constituency factors are also important in explaining intra-party differences in voting in Congress, but only by way of supporting the hypothesis that party voting patterns reflect constituency differences.The general theory underlying this analysis posits gross relationships between sociological variables and political behavior, especially in democratic systems which permit relatively wide latitude in political activity. Since shared attitudes about various problems confronting people are often the result of sharing similar environments, and since economic and social environments vary widely in the United States, it is not surprising to find people located in similar environments choosing up sides in similar ways on matters of public policy, and differing with those who do not share the same environment. These effects should be most noticeable in relatively small areas, such as congressional districts.

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Europapolitik im föderalen Haus

10.5771/9783748925651 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Antonios Souris

Keyword(s):

Voting Behaviour ◽

Civil Protection ◽

The European Union ◽

Roll Call ◽

Investment Funds ◽

Data Set ◽

Ideal Types ◽

Policy Positions ◽

German States ◽

The Eu

The European Union (EU) Committee of the German Bundesrat takes centre stage in the constitutionally guaranteed mechanism that allows the 16 German states (Länder) to participate in EU affairs. Hence, the EU Committee is a key player when it comes to the formulation of and decisions on the states’ policy positions towards Europe. This study scrutinises the interests and conflicts of the Länder based on three ideal types of voting behaviour, consensus as well as territorial and partisan dissensus, and a new data set that comprises 6,220 roll call votes in the EU Committee. Case studies on three policy issues, EU civil protection, the European structural and investment funds, and crisis management in the eurozone, complement the study’s data analysis.

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Public Opinion and Public Policy in Advanced Democracies

Political Science ◽

10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0045 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christopher Wlezien

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Public Opinion ◽

Voting Behavior ◽

Descriptive Representation ◽

Political Systems ◽

Roll Call ◽

Political Actors ◽

The Public ◽

Self Interest ◽

The Government

The representation of public opinion in public policy is of obvious importance in representative democracies. While public opinion is important in all political systems, it is especially true where voters elect politicians; after all, opinion representation is a primary justification for representative democracy. Not surprisingly, a lot of research addresses the connection between the public and the government. Much of the work considers “descriptive representation”—whether the partisan and demographic characteristics of elected politicians match the characteristics of the electorate itself. This descriptive representation is important but may not produce actual “substantive representation” of preferences in policy. Other work examines the positions of policymakers. Some of this research assesses the roll call voting behavior of politicians and institutions. The expressed positions and voting behavior of political actors do relate to policy but are not the same things. Fortunately, a good amount of research analyzes policy. With but a handful of exceptions noted below, this research focuses on expressed preferences of the public, not their “interests.” That is, virtually all scholars let people be the judges of their own interests, and they assess the representation of expressed opinion no matter how contrary to self-interest it may seem.

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Coup Research

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.369 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Clayton L. Thyne ◽

Jonathan Powell

Keyword(s):

Voting Behavior ◽

Basic Research ◽

Past Research ◽

Global Politics ◽

High Profile ◽

Interstate Disputes ◽

Number Of Factors ◽

Previous Decade ◽

The Media ◽

The Arab Spring

With 28 coup attempts from 2008 through 2017, the previous decade saw the fewest coup attempts in any ten-year period since at least as far back as 1960. Though coups may well be on the decline, research on coups has burgeoned since the early 2000s. The increased scholarly interest in coups can likely be attributed to a number of factors. First, high-profile coups like the 2011 ouster of President Mubarak in Egypt during the Arab Spring uprisings and the more recent autocratic deepening after the 2016 failed coup in Turkey highlight the importance of coups in shaping global politics. Increased attention from the media and policymakers has been coupled with the rise in studies that examine the causes and consequences of coups. Second, while past research largely focused on particular cases, the introduction of new datasets has allowed scholars to examine coups across time and space to reveal more generalizable patterns. Finally, unlike topics like war, democratization, and voting behavior, coup researchers have only begun to tackle even the most basic research questions when it comes to coups. The bulk of coup literature attempts to explain why coups come about. Studies focused on predicting coups often focus on factors like coup-proofing, domestic protests and instability, and how international actors can either foment or stymie coup attempts. A smaller and growing literature considers how coups influence other processes, often focusing on outcomes like democracy, economic development, and interstate disputes.

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Economic internationalization and the decline of the left–right dimension

Party Politics ◽

10.1177/1354068818816975 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 36-49

Author(s):

Emiliano Grossman ◽

Nicolas Sauger

Keyword(s):

Voting Behavior ◽

Western Europe ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Short Term ◽

Economic Openness ◽

Foreign Investments ◽

Economic Exchanges ◽

European Election ◽

The Impact

This article examines the continuing importance of the left–right dimension for voting behavior in Western Europe. We test the extent to which economic internationalization may affect the capacity of this dimension to structure party preferences. We explore two dimensions of internationalization, long-term openness and short-term changes, assessing, respectively, the impact of international trade and foreign investments on voters’ preference formation. To study the influence of changing context, we use four waves of the European Election Study (1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014). We show that openness to international economic exchanges tends to weaken the left–right cleavage. At the same time, long-term economic openness appears to soften the impact of short-term shocks for the relevance of left–right politics.

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Congressional Voting on Labor Issues: The Role of PACS

ILR Review ◽

10.1177/001979398704000201 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 163-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Gregory M. Saltzman

Keyword(s):

House Of Representatives ◽

Political Action ◽

Roll Call ◽

Roll Call Voting ◽

Congressional Voting ◽

Action Committee ◽

Labor Issues ◽

The Impact ◽

Significant Direct Effect

This study measures the impact of labor and corporate political action committee (PAC) contributions on the voting of members of the House of Representatives on labor issues during 1979–80. It also analyzes the allocation of labor PAC contributions among House candidates. PAC contributions were found to have a significant direct effect on roll-call voting, even controlling for the Representative's political party and characteristics of the constituency. Since PAC money also affects roll-call voting indirectly (by influencing which party wins elections), the overall impact of PAC money on Congressional voting is probably substantial. The author also finds that labor PACs have focused more on influencing the outcome of elections than on currying favor with powerful members of the House who are likely to be re-elected anyway.

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The Stability of Coalitions on Roll Calls in the House of Representatives

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1953096 ◽

1962 ◽

Vol 56 (1) ◽

pp. 58-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

William H. Riker ◽

Donald Niemi

Keyword(s):

House Of Representatives ◽

Voting Behavior ◽

The Other ◽

Considerable Degree ◽

Congressional Voting ◽

Rational Explanation ◽

Stability Of Coalitions ◽

The Stability ◽

Do So

In some recent discussions of roll calls in Congress a model of interacting blocs has often been adopted and to a considerable degree verified. This model assumes the existence of several fairly cohesive blocs along with, perhaps, some unattached members. Furthermore, it is assumed that some of these blocs are fairly consistently opposed on roll calls, while others ally now with one side, now with the other. This model is attractive, not only because it accords with the usage of journalists, but also because it seems to provide a rational explanation of what sometimes appears to be the almost random confusion of Congressional voting behavior. As the evidence here presented suggests, however, this model is somewhat too neat and requires modification to account for shifting alliances over (often relatively short periods of) time. In a trial, reasoning from the assumptions of this model, we attempted to pick out those blocs and members who shifted from side to side. We were, however, unable to do so except in a few instances, largely, we believe, because the model as heretofore developed is static.

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