Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Impact of Political Party System upon Legislative Roll Call Voting Behavior

本博士论文研究支持调查通过关注政党制度对立法者点名决定的影响来研究美国立法机构的代表制过程。Poole和Rosenthal（1997）发现，大多数点名投票可以用一个简单的一维或二维模型来解释，其中主要维度是政治意识形态。然而，最近的研究表明，当两党选举竞争下降时，这种低维结构往往会崩溃。本论文通过观察三个州的立法院，探讨了政党制度与唱名投票中发现的结构水平之间的明显联系。每个议院都有不同的政党制度。从这三个州收集的点名数据允许评估关于政党选举竞争对点名投票维度的影响以及成员理想点沿这些维度分布的假设。

This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support investigation examines the process of representation in American legislatures by focusing on the effect of political party system upon legislator roll call decisions. Poole and Rosenthal (1997) found that most roll call vote can be explained by a simple one or two dimensional model, in which the primary dimension is political ideology. However, recent work suggests that this low-dimensional structure tends to break down when two-party electoral competition declines.This dissertation explores this apparent linkage between party system and the level of structure found in roll call votes by looking at three state legislative chambers. Each chamber is characterized by a different party system. Roll call data collected from these three states permits the evaluation of hypotheses regarding the impact of party electoral competition on the dimensionality of roll call voting and the distribution of member ideal points along those dimensions.