Measuring Constituency Ideology in U.S. House Districts: A Top-Down Simulation Approach
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Phillip Ardoin Ph.D., Professor of American Political Institutions and Department Chair (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: One of the most intractable problems associated with studying representation in the U.S. House
of Representatives involves the measurement of district-level constituency opinion. In measuring
constituency opinion in House districts, scholars have relied on a number of alternative approaches,
including the use of demographic variables, small-sample estimates of public opinion, presidential
election results, referenda data, and “bottom-up” simulated opinion. In this article we develop an
innovative “top-down” simulation of House district opinion that provides more reliable and valid
measures of House district ideology. We model state-level ideology (as measured by Erikson, Wright,
and McIver 1993) as a function of various demographic and political variables found at both the state
and House district levels, and then use the estimates from the state-level model to generate predicted
ideology scores for each House district during the 1980s and 1990s. Our findings suggest that
the top-down simulated measure is a valid indicator of House district ideology that can be used in
a number of research venues.
Measuring Constituency Ideology in U.S. House Districts: A Top-Down Simulation Approach
PDF (Portable Document Format)
560 KB
Created on 9/8/2011
Views: 2609
Additional Information
- Publication
- Ardoin, P. J. and Garand, J. C. (2003) Measuring Constituency Ideology in U.S. House Districts: A Top-Down Simulation Approach, Journal of Politics, 65(4): 1165-1189. (Nov 2003) Published by Cambridge University Press (ISSN: 1468-2508). DOI: 10.1111/1468-2508.t01-1-00131
- Language: English
- Date: 2003