This note develops a county-level measure of state legislative party competition for the periods between 1968-73, 1974-79, and 1980-85. The validity of the measure is evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis, a comparison to Ranney's state-level measure, and through an examination of the county-level data. In all cases, the county-level measure shows it is a valid indicator of party competition at the state legislative level.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barrilleaux, Charles J.1986. "A Dynamic Model of Partisan Competition in the American States." American Journal of Political Science30: 822-40.
2.
Bass, Jack, and Walter DeVries.1976. 1977. The Transformation of Southern Politics. New York: Basic Books.
3.
Bond, Jon R.1983. "The Influence of Constituency Diversity on Electoral Competition in Voting for Congress, 1974-1978." Legislative Studies Quarterly8: 201-17.
4.
Cotter, C.P., J.L. Gibson, J.F. Bibby, and R.J. Huckshorn.1984. Party Organizations in the American Politics. New York: Praeger.
5.
Dawson, Richard, and James Robinson.1963. "Inter-party Competition, Economic Variables, and Welfare Policies in the American States." Journal of Politics25: 265-89.
6.
Fiorina, Morris P.1974. Representatives, Roll Calls, and Constituencies . Lexington, MA: Lexington Books .
7.
Hofferbert, Richard 1.1964. "Classification of American State Party Systems ." Journal of Politics26: 550-67.
8.
Inter-university Consortium of Political and Social Research. 1989. "State Legislative Election Returns in the U.S., 1968-1986." Third ICPSR, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: 8ICPSR.
9.
Jacobson, Gary C.1990. The Electoral Origin of Divided Government. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
10.
Ranney, Austin.1965, 1971, 1976. "Parties in State Politics." In Herbert Jacob and Kenneth Vines, eds., Politics in the American States, 1st, 2d, and 3d eds. Boston: Little, Brown.
11.
Ranney, Austin, and W. Kendall.1954. "The American Party Systems."American Political Science Review48: 477-85.
12.
Seagull, Louis M.1975. Southern Republicanism. New York: Wiley.
13.
Schlesinger, Joseph A.1955. "A Two-Dimensional Scheme for Classifying the States According to Degree of Inter-party Competition." American Political Science Review49: 1120-28.
14.
Sullivan, John L.1973. "Political Correlates of Social, Economic and Religious Diversity in the American States." Journal of Politics35: 70-84.
15.
Wyrick, T.L.1991. "Management of Political Influence: Gerrymandering in the 1980s." American Politics Quarterly19: 396-416.
