Legislative Voting Behavior, Seen and Unseen: A Theory of Roll-Call Vote Selection

The empirical study of legislative behavior largely relies on roll-call vote analysis, but roll-call votes in many legislatures represent only a sample of legislative votes. We have good reasons to believe this sample is particularly poor for inferring party effects on legislative behavior. The sele...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Legislative studies quarterly 2008-11, Vol.33 (4), p.543-572
Main Authors: CARRUBBA, CLIFFORD, GABEL, MATTHEW, HUG, SIMON
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contrafactuals
Expected utility
Legislative Bodies
Legislators
Legislatures
Modeling
Political parties
Roll Call
Roll call votes
Selection bias
Special Section: Measuring the Policy Preferences of Legislators
Voting
Voting Behavior
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Summary:The empirical study of legislative behavior largely relies on roll-call vote analysis, but roll-call votes in many legislatures represent only a sample of legislative votes. We have good reasons to believe this sample is particularly poor for inferring party effects on legislative behavior. The selection of votes for roll call may be endogenous to exactly the characteristics of voting behavior (for instance, party cohesion) that we want to study. We must understand the roll-call vote institution and account for its selection effects before we can draw inferences about legislative behavior from roll-call results. This article develops a game-theoretic model of rollcall vote requests predicated on party leaders requesting votes to enforce party discipline. The model offers general and testable predictions about the selection process and how it affects observed and unobserved legislative voting behavior, particularly party cohesion.
ISSN:0362-9805
1939-9162
DOI:10.3162/036298008786403079