Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-d5ftd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-05T22:53:43.712Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the U.S. States: A Re-appraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

William D. Berry ,
Richard C. Fording ,
Evan J. Ringquist ,
Russell L. Hanson  and
Carl E. Klarner
William D. Berry
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Richard C. Fording
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
Evan J. Ringquist
Affiliation:
Indiana University Bloomington
Russell L. Hanson
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Carl E. Klarner
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Berry et al.'s (1998) measures of U.S. state citizen and government ideology rely on unadjusted interest-group ratings for a state's members of Congress to infer information about (1) the ideological orientation of the electorates that selected them or (2) state legislators and the governor from the same state. Potential weaknesses in unadjusted interest-group ratings prompt the question: Are the Berry et al. measures flawed, and if so, can they be fixed by substituting alternative measures of a member's ideology? We conclude that a version of the Berry et al. state government ideology indicator relying on NOMINATE common space scores is marginally superior to the extant version. In contrast, we reaffirm the validity of the original state citizen ideology indicator and find that versions based on NOMINATE common space scores and adjusted ADA and COPE scores introduced by Groseclose, Levitt, and Snyder (1999) are weaker.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Summer 2010 , pp. 117 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aldrich, John. 1995. Why Political Parties? Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, Stephen, Snyder, James M. Jr., and Stewart, Charles III. 2001. “Candidate Positioning in U.S. House Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 45:136–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bafumi, Joseph, and Herron, Michael C.. 2007. “Preference Aggregation, Representation, and Elected American Political Institutions.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael. 2007. “Comparable Preference Estimates across Time and Institutions for the Court, Congress, and Presidency.” American Journal of Political Science 51:433–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Michael, and Rom, Mark C.. 2004. “A Wider Race? Interstate Competition Across Health and Welfare Programs.” The Journal of Politics 66:326–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Ringquist, Evan J., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 1998. “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States, 1960–93.” American Journal of Political Science 42:327–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Ringquist, Evan J., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 2007. “The Measurement and Stability of Citizen Ideology.” State Policy and Politics Quarterly 7:111–32.Google Scholar
Berry, William D., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 2003. “Reassessing the ‘Race to the Bottom’ in State Welfare Policy.” The Journal of Politics 65:327–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishin, Benjamin G. 2003. “Independently Validating Ideology Measures: A Look at NOMINATE and Adjusted ADA Scores.” American Politics Research 31:401–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brace, Paul, Arceneaux, Kevin, Johnson, Martin, and Ulbig, Stacy. 2007. “Reply to ‘The Measurement and Stability of State Citizen Ideology.‘” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 7:133–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, David, and Schwarz, Edward. 1995. “Ideology and Interests in Congressional Voting: The Politics of Abortion in the U.S. Senate.” Public Choice 84:25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burden, Barry C., Caldeira, Gregory A., and Groseclose, Tim. 2000. “Measuring Ideologies of U.S. Senators: The Song Remains the Same.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 25:237–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burden, Barry C. 2004. “Candidate Positioning in US Congressional Elections.” British Journal of Political Science 34:211–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Donald T., and Fiske, Donald W.. 1959. “Convergent and Discriminant Validation by the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix.” Psychological Bulletin 56:81–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carson, Jamie L., Crespin, Michael H., Jenkins, Jeffery A., and Vander Wielen, Ryan J.. 2004. “Shirking in the Contemporary Congress: A Reappraisal.” Political Analysis 12:176–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clinton, Joshua, Jackman, Simon, and Rivers, Douglas. 2004. “The Statistical Analysis of Roll Call Data.” American Political Science Review 98:355–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffey, Daniel J. 2006. “State Party Activists and State Party Polarization.” In The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Parties, 5th ed. Eds., Green, John C. and Coffey, Daniel J.. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Cotter, Cornelius P., Gibson, James L., Bibby, John F., and Huckshorn, Robert J.. 1984. Party Organizations in American Politics. New York, NY: Praeger.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York, NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., Wright, Gerald C., and McIver, John P.. 1993. Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Policy in the American States. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris. 1999. “Further Evidence of the Partisan Consequences of Legislative Professionalism.” American Journal of Political Science 43:974–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fording, Richard C. 2001. “The Political Response to Black Insurgency: A Critical Test of Competing Theories of the State.” American Political Science Review 95:115–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groseclose, Tim, Levitt, Steven D., and Snyder, James M. Jr. 1999. “Comparing Interest Group Scores across Time and Chambers: Adjusted ADA Scores for the U. S. Congress.” American Political Science Review 93:33–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckman, James, and Snyder, James. 1997. “Linear Probability Models of the Demand for Attributes with an Empirical Application to Estimating the Preferences of Legislators.” Rand Journal of Economics. Special Issue S:142–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herron, Michael C. 2000. “Cutpoint-Adjusted Interest Group Ratings.” Political Analysis 8:346–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Kim Quaile, Hanna, Stephen, and Shafqat, Sahar. 1997. “The Liberal-Conservative Ideology of U.S. Senators: A New Measure.” American Journal of Political Science 41:1395–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, John E., and Kingdon, John W.. 1992. “Ideology, Interest Group Scores, and Legislative Votes.” American Journal of Political Science 36:805–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Junseok, and Gerber, Brian. 2005. “Bureaucratic Leverage over Policy Choice: Explaining the Dynamics of State-Level Reforms in Telecommunications Regulation.” Policy Studies Journal 33:613–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langer, Laura, and Brace, Paul. 2005. “The Preemptive Power of State Supreme Courts: Adoption of Abortion and Death Penalty Legislation.” Policy Studies Journal 33:317–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meinke, Scott R., and Hasecke, Edward B.. 2003. “Term Limits, Professionalization, and Partisan Control in U.S. State Legislatures.” The Journal of Politics 65:898–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Warren E., and Kent Jennings, M.. 1987. Parties in Transition: A Longitudinal Study of Party Elites and Party Supporters. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Nicholson-Crotty, Sean. 2004. “Goal Conflict and Fund Diversion in Federal Grants to the States.” American Journal of Political Science 48:110–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paddock, Joel. 1998. “Explaining State Variation in Interparty Ideological Differences.” Political Research Quarterly 51:765–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, David K., Gelman, Andrew, and Bafumi, Joseph. 2004. “Bayesian Multilevel Estimation with Poststratification: State-Level Estimates from National Polls.” Political Analysis 12:375–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T. 1998. “Recovering an Issue Space from a Set of Issue Scales.” American Journal of Political Science 42:954–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T. 2006. “Description of NOMINATE Data.” http://voteview.com/page2a.htm (last accessed March 1, 2010).Google Scholar
Rothenberg, Lawrence S., and Sanders, Mitchell S.. 2000. “Severing the Electoral Connection: Shirking in the Contemporary Congress.” American Journal of Political Science 44:316–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildkraut, Deborah J. 2001. “Official-English and the States: Influences on Declaring English the Official Language in the United States.” Political Research Quarterly 54:445–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipan, Charles R., and Volden, Craig. 2006. “Bottom-Up Federalism: The Diffusion of Antismoking Policies from U.S. Cities to States.” American Journal of Political Science 50:825–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shor, Boris, Berry, Christopher, and McCarty, Nolan. 2007. “A Bridge to Somewhere: Mapping State and Congressional Ideology on a Cross-Institutional Common Space.” Harris School Working Paper #07.12.Google Scholar
Snyder, James M. Jr. 1992. “Artificial Extremism in Interest Group Ratings.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 17:319–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R., and Ginn, Martha Humphries. 2002. “Assessing the Impact of Presidential and Home State Influences on Judicial Decisionmaking in the United States Courts of Appeals.” Political Research Quarterly 55:299–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, Joe, Schram, Sanford F., Vartanian, Thomas P., and O'Brien, Erin. 2001. “Setting the Terms of Relief: Explaining State Policy Choices in the Devolution Revolution.” American Journal of Political Science 45:378–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stimson, James A. 1991. Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Stimson, James A. 2004. Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics. New Your, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uslaner, Eric M., and Weber, Ronald E.. 1978. “U.S. State Legislators' Opinions and Perceptions of Constituency Attitudes.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 4:563–85.Google Scholar
Volden, Craig. 2002. “The Politics of Competitive Federalism: A Race to the Bottom in Welfare Benefits?” American Journal of Political Science 46:352–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, B. Dan, and Theobald, Nick A.. 2003. “Political Responsiveness and Equity in Public Education Finance.” The Journal of Politics 65:718–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, Jeffrey, and Fording, Richard. 2005. “Politics and State Punitiveness in Black and White.” The Journal of Politics 67:1099–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar