Jerrold Schneider argues that ideology has the strongest impact on how a Representative will vote. He says that by understanding their ideology you will be more likely to predict their future voting patterns. Schneider says, "The results show very high ideological consistency among all policy dimensions." (pg. 195)> Although, he does not deny that other factors perhaps party, can have an impact on a vote as well.

Another study, done by Morris Fiorina, disagrees with this conclusion, though. Fiorina believes that a Representative's primary goal is reelection and, therefore, votes for his constituents. A Representative's "votes are not simply passive responses to role expectations, group memberships, and interest group pressures. Rather, the representative votes with an eye toward achieving valued consequences" (pg. 29). But once again it is not denied that party

Another scholar, Aage R. Clausen, has a different theory. He believes that both constituency and party loyalty play major roles in how Representatives cast a vote. He argues, "Party is a link with the past and with the constituency, and it provides a basis for establishing new friendships and working relations in the confusing whirlpools of Washington politics" (pg. 120). He believes that because of the way Representatives are grouped and associated within Congress party cohesion is inevitable.

The next bill deals with the issue of flag desecration. The chart below shows the results before any control variables are added. Republicans strongly favor this bill while Democrats are split down the middle. Democrats do not appear to be influenced by party so some other variable must have had an impact on their vote. Republicans remain strongly in favor of this bill even when independent variables are added.

By region, more Democrats from the West (93.8%) voted no while fewer Democrats from the South voted no (66.1%). More females Democrats voted no (93.8%). For both Republicans and Democrats the higher the percentage of African Americans in their district, the more intense their partisan voting becomes. And for Democrats, house value shows some impact. Districts with higher house values have more no votes on this bill. Overall, this bill is very partisan with little impact from control variables.

After analyzing this extensive data, it is evident to me that party does play a major role in Congressional votes on social issues. On these issues in particular, Republicans were almost unanimously in agreement on every vote. Democratic partisanship was not as intense on all issues but was still very evident. Looking more closely at each issue will further illustrate this.

The Republican vote stays consistent in all districts while Democratic votes seem to shift as house value decreases. This suggested that Representatives are taking into account their constituents when placing this vote. Either way, party does have a very strong impact on both Republicans and Democrats for this bill.

Looking at two other studies on this issue has lead to similar conclusions. Both of these studies concluded that both party and ideology were deciding factors when a Representative votes. This is because Democrats tend to have shared ideologies just as Republicans have shared ideologies. William Shaffer's study showed that "the party differences were substantial in all sections of the country, particularly in the Midwest and Far West regions. The associated eta coefficients indicate that the correlation between party and ideology was moderate-to-strong" (pg. 330). While Rosenthal and Poole state that "efforts aimed at explaining congressional voting behavior on the basis of constituency, economic interests, or other preferences for that matter, is likely t

Some common words found in the essay are:
African Americans, Ten Commandments, Democrats Democrats, Nonwhite Democrats, Democrats Republicans, Aage Clausen, Rosenthal Poole, Morris Fiorina, Jerrold Schneider, , control variables, house value, control variable, democrats voted, social issues, party ideology, partial birth, republicans strongly, districts house values, house values, districts house, percent democrats voted, house value district, adding control variables, voted yes bill,
Approximate Word count = 1943
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)