Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives
Poole and Rosenthal’s NOMINATE scores have been a boon to the study of Congress, but they are not without limitations. We focus on two limitations that are especially important in historical applications. First, the dimensions uncovered by NOMINATE do not necessarily have a consistent “ideological”...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Cambridge University Press
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105926 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6769-1438 |
| _version_ | 1826204707217997824 |
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| author | Schickler, Eric Caughey, Devin |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science Schickler, Eric Caughey, Devin |
| author_sort | Schickler, Eric |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Poole and Rosenthal’s NOMINATE scores have been a boon to the study of Congress, but they are not without limitations. We focus on two limitations that are especially important in historical applications. First, the dimensions uncovered by NOMINATE do not necessarily have a consistent “ideological” meaning over time. Our case study of the 1920s highlights the challenge of interpreting NOMINATE scores in periods when party lines do not map well onto the main contours of ideological debate in political life. Second, commonly used DW-NOMINATE scores make assumptions that are not well suited to dealing with rapid or non-monotonic ideological change. A case study of Southern Democrats in the New Deal era suggests that a more flexible dynamic item response model provides a better fit for this important period. These applications illustrate the feasibility and value of tailoring one’s model and data to one’s research goals rather than relying on off-the-shelf NOMINATE scores. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:59:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/105926 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:59:26Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1059262022-09-28T11:22:08Z Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives Schickler, Eric Caughey, Devin Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science Caughey, Devin Poole and Rosenthal’s NOMINATE scores have been a boon to the study of Congress, but they are not without limitations. We focus on two limitations that are especially important in historical applications. First, the dimensions uncovered by NOMINATE do not necessarily have a consistent “ideological” meaning over time. Our case study of the 1920s highlights the challenge of interpreting NOMINATE scores in periods when party lines do not map well onto the main contours of ideological debate in political life. Second, commonly used DW-NOMINATE scores make assumptions that are not well suited to dealing with rapid or non-monotonic ideological change. A case study of Southern Democrats in the New Deal era suggests that a more flexible dynamic item response model provides a better fit for this important period. These applications illustrate the feasibility and value of tailoring one’s model and data to one’s research goals rather than relying on off-the-shelf NOMINATE scores. 2016-12-21T21:05:48Z 2016-12-21T21:05:48Z 2016-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0898-588X 1469-8692 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105926 Caughey, Devin, and Eric Schickler. “Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives.” Studies in American Political Development 30.2 (2016): 128–146. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6769-1438 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0898588X16000092 Studies in American Political Development Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Cambridge University Press MIT Web Domain |
| spellingShingle | Schickler, Eric Caughey, Devin Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives |
| title | Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives |
| title_full | Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives |
| title_fullStr | Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives |
| title_short | Substance and Change in Congressional Ideology: NOMINATE and Its Alternatives |
| title_sort | substance and change in congressional ideology nominate and its alternatives |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105926 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6769-1438 |
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