Three Essays on Measurement with Congressional Roll Call Votes

Abstract

The statistical analysis of roll call data is a long-standing practice in Congressional studies. However, recent methodological improvements have narrowed methodological focus to vote scaling procedures at the expense of other worthwhile conceptual and measurement advancement. This dissertation advances the study of congressional politics by offering three perspectives on how Congressional roll call votes are used to understand legislative preferences, procedure, and outcomes. The first chapter offers a nuanced critique of modern scaling procedures, demonstrating its performance under certain institutional constraints and relevance to inference about historical developments in ideology over time. The second and third chapters offer a refreshed conceptualization of bipartisan voting in Congress in a voting outcomes framework. Together, these three essays approach a well-researched area with conceptual clarity to revitalize the study of Congressional voting beyond scaling.