Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:10:07.927Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Search for Comparability: Response to Binder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2008

Fang-Yi Chiou
Affiliation:
Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Taipei, Taiwan, e-mail: [email protected]
Lawrence S. Rothenberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
*
e-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author)

Abstract

Binder (n.d., Taking the measure of Congress: Reply to Chiou and Rothenberg. Political Analysis. Forthcoming) highlights areas of agreement and disagreement with our discussion of preference measurement and legislative gridlock. We now both agree that W-NOMINATE scores—employed in Binder (1999, The dynamics of legislative gridlock. American Political Science Review 9:519–33) to measure key independent variables, including bicameral differences—should not be used when examining multichamber legislatures over time. We continue to disagree over whether Common Space scores or Binder's conference vote measure is superior. In this response, we show that, although several of the theoretical and statistical objections that Binder (n.d.) raises to our Common Space measure do not apply, they are all relevant for her conference vote analog. Additionally, we detail how, despite protests to the contrary, the conference vote measure is plagued by insufficient data. Finally, we demonstrate how new efforts to show that Binder's (1999) results continue to hold are not robust.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, Michael A. 2007. Comparable preference estimates across time and institutions for the Court, Congress and presidency. American Journal of Political Science 51: 433–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binder, Sarah A. 1999. The dynamics of legislative gridlock. American Political Science Review 9: 519–33.Google Scholar
Binder, Sarah A. 2003. Stalemate: Causes and consequences of legislative gridlock. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Binder, Sarah A. n.d. Taking the measure of Congress: Reply to Chiou and Rothenberg. Political Analysis. doi:10.1093/pan/mpm033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiou, Fang-Yi, and Rothenberg, Lawrence S. 2003. When pivotal politics meets partisan politics. American Journal of Political Science 47: 503–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiou, Fang-Yi, and Rothenberg, Lawrence S. n.d. Comparing legislators and legislatures: The dynamics of legislative gridlock reconsidered. Political Analysis. doi:10.1093/pan/mpm021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T. 1998. Recovering a basic space from a set of issue scales. American Journal of Political Science 42: 964–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 2007. Ideology & Congress. 2nd rev. ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar