Political scientist Jonathan Kropko conducted a party study of ideology in the first session of the 110th session of the House of Representatives. He made several interesting findings:
* More Democrats seem to be taking ideological positions in the middle, and there are more Democrats on the conservative side of ideology than there are Republicans on the liberal side.
* Representatives may not be so polarized ideologically when they're not being pressured by their parties.
* The Republican leadership in the House is much more conservative than the Democratic leadership is liberal. Nancy Pelosi and majority whip James Clyburn are staunchly on the conservative end of the Democratic party.
The paper can be found here.
Perhaps most interesting is that when members of Congress are thinking on their own and not in a partisan manner, they are more likely to vote similarly regardless of party affiliation. It suggests that if a representative were to take a stand and not fall in with the party leadership, more original thought would result, and perhaps more problems would be resolved in reasonable ways.
Voting a particular way simply because you are a member of a certain party is unfair and irresponsible. Your constituents elected you to either speak their minds or to speak your mind, not to speak your party's mind.
* More Democrats seem to be taking ideological positions in the middle, and there are more Democrats on the conservative side of ideology than there are Republicans on the liberal side.
* Representatives may not be so polarized ideologically when they're not being pressured by their parties.
* The Republican leadership in the House is much more conservative than the Democratic leadership is liberal. Nancy Pelosi and majority whip James Clyburn are staunchly on the conservative end of the Democratic party.
The paper can be found here.
Perhaps most interesting is that when members of Congress are thinking on their own and not in a partisan manner, they are more likely to vote similarly regardless of party affiliation. It suggests that if a representative were to take a stand and not fall in with the party leadership, more original thought would result, and perhaps more problems would be resolved in reasonable ways.
Voting a particular way simply because you are a member of a certain party is unfair and irresponsible. Your constituents elected you to either speak their minds or to speak your mind, not to speak your party's mind.
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