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Public Opinion in the U.S. States: 1956 to 2010

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Peter K. Enns  and
Julianna Koch
Peter K. Enns*
Affiliation:
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Julianna Koch
Affiliation:
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
*
Peter K. Enns, Cornell University, 214 White Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Email: pe52@cornell.edu
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Abstract

In this article, we create, validate, and analyze new dynamic measures of state partisanship, state policy mood, and state political ideology. The measures of partisanship and policy mood begin in 1956 and the measure of ideology begins in 1976. Our approach uses the advantages of two leading techniques for measuring state public opinion—multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) and survey aggregation. The resulting estimates are based on nearly 500 different surveys with a total of more than 740,000 respondents. After validating our measures, we show that during the last half century, policy preferences in the states have shifted in important and sometimes surprising ways. For example, we find that differences in political attitudes across time can be as important as differences across states.

Keywords

issue preferencespublic opinionvoting behaviorpolitical behaviorsurvey researchmethodologyideology
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 349 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013

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