The Impact of Party and Ideology on Roll-Call Voting in State Legislatures.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 31(2

To assess the relative impact of party and ideology on legislative behavior, I utilize survey-based measures of legislator ideology to examine voting in five state legislatures. The results suggest that, although party and ideology both influence voting, the impact of party is greater. The magnitude of this impact varies, however, from chamber to chamber. The activity of parties in the electoral arena explains part of this variance, with more active parties having more influence. Thus, research on legislative behavior should focus on the context surrounding the decision-making process in order for us to understand the influences on voting. In attempting to understand how public policies are formulated, political scientists have focused on the nature of decision making in legislatures and on the influences on elected officials ’ roll-call decisions. Many studies have examined the impact of political parties and the personal beliefs of legislators. There is much debate over which of these two factors is more important, however. The lack of consistent findings regarding legislative decision making stems largely from th