Representative ideology and the vote for welfare reform
- 2001
- p.148-66
- Autumn
This article examines the congressional vote for HR3734, The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The primary concern is to identify the factors that had a significant influence over the voting decision, paying special attention to representative ideology measured by Americans for Democratic Action and American Conservative Union voting scores. An empirical model is developed and estimated using logistic regression. The model incorporates proxies for representative ideology, constituent ideology, constituent economic interest, and the potential for legislative shirking. The results indicate that representaive ideology was an important factor in the vote, but that constit uent ideology and interests were also influential. Knowledge of the pattern of voting on the original legislation should prove useful to policy makers as the need for further refinement of the welfare system becomes evident, as it almost surely will. - Reproduced.