Elizabeth A. Oldmixon

Religion in the Legislative Arena: Affiliation, Salience, Advocacy, and Public Policymaking

Religion is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that informs politics in various ways. This article examines the effects of religious affiliation, religious salience, and religious group advocacy on roll-call voting in the Wisconsin state legislature. Various studies have demonstrated the impact of religious affiliation on legislative politics, but our use of additional religious indicators allows us to model the religious effect in a more accurate and nuanced manner. Using data from an original survey of state legislators, we utilized structural equation modeling to measure the direct and indirect effects of these religious factors on both the general pattern of roll-call voting and voting on a high-salience issue, abortion. Ultimately, the findings indicate that, even when we control for political party affiliation, which is a dominant influence on roll-call voting, conservative Protestant religious affiliation and high religious salience influence legislative voting. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for future studies of religion in the legislative arena.

Culture Wars in the Congressional Theater: How the U.S. House of Representatives Legislates Morality, 1993-1998

Objective. This article explores the politics of cultural conflict in the U.S. House of Representatives (1993–1998) by analyzing legislator decision making on reproductive issues. Because reproductive policies represent a major contemporary cultural cleavage between feminists and religious traditionalists, decision making should be influenced by elite – and district –level variables reflective of culture. Methods. Pro –choice support scores are derived and, using OLS, are regressed on elite – and district –level cultural and noncultural variables. Results. Republican partisanship and elite ideological and religious conservatism produce low levels of support for pro –choice reproductive policies. Conclusions. Cultural theory is a useful lens through which to view congressional politics. In the area of reproductive policy, legislator decision making is influenced by an array of cultural considerations.

Conflict over Israel: The Role of Religion, Race, Party and Ideology in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1997–2002

ABSTRACT This paper explores the contours of support for the state of Israel in the House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. In an analysis of votes and cosponsorship decisions, we find that when Congress considers innocuous resolutions of support for Israel, support is consensual and nonpartisan. However, as the violence escalated between Israel and the Palestinians in the 106th and 107th Congresses (1999–2001), the House increasingly considered bills and resolutions that directly engaged the Palestinian issue and forced legislators to take a side in the ongoing conflict. This transformed the politics of support for Israel and increased the level of conflict among legislators. With that, new partisan, ideological, religious, and racial cleavages emerged. Democrats, liberals, and African Americans started to identify with the Palestinians—not Israel—as the oppressed group. At the same time, religious and ideological conservatives and Republicans started to identify with Israel as a just state under attack from lawless individuals considered to be outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. At least with regard to Israel, this suggests that the development of U.S. foreign policy, which is often characterized as an elite-driven pursuit of national interests, is heavily marked by domestic ethno-religious forces.

Internationalism in Congress

This article explores the conditions under which Congress supports U.S. involvement in international affairs. While Presidents have tended to support internationalist foreign policies, Congress, pre-occupied with district and state-level concerns, has shown more reticence in this area. Probit analysis was used to study internationalist, presidential support votes taken in the House and Senate from 1948 to 1994. The results suggest that while a mix of foreign and domestic factors affects the level of congressional internationalism, domestic economic factors have the most consistent impact across chambers. When economic indicators are depressed, so too is congressional support for presidential internationalism.

When Church Teachings and Policy Commitments Collide: Perspectives on Catholics in the U.S. House of Representatives

This article investigates the influence of religious values on domestic social policy-making, with a particular focus on Catholics. We analyze roll call votes in the 109 th Congress and find that Catholic identification is associated with support for Catholic Social Teaching, but both younger Catholics and Republican Catholics are found less supportive. In followup interviews with a small sample of Catholic Republicans, we find that they justify voting contrary to Church teaching by seeing its application to most domestic social issues as less authoritative than Church moral teachings on issues like abortion.

Who and What Affects the First Estate? An Analysis of Clergy Attitudes on Cultural and Economic Issues

Since the 1980s, scholars have come to appreciate the role clergy have in shaping the political attitudes and behaviour of the faithful. Through their leadership in self-selecting religious contexts, they are well positioned to translate religious values into political values. Given their potential as opinion leaders, this study investigates the dynamics of clergy opinions. Focusing on clergy in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, it assesses the influence of psychological factors on economic and cultural attitudes, while controlling for the influence of contextual and personal characteristics. This is done using a question-order experiment embedded in an original survey. There are three key findings: (1) clergy attitudes are sensitive to cognitive primes that elevate the salience of interpersonal and institutional concerns; (2) clergy are sensitive to the perceived preferences of their institutional superiors; and (3) social-psychological factors affect how clergy report their political opinions. This means that the social-psychological dimension should be considered important alongside existing frameworks for understanding clergy politics.

Assessing the Effect of Breakout Sessions on Student Success and Satisfaction

Introductory American government is a common component of college and university core curricula and, as such, it often is taught in large sections. This makes active learning more difficult, which may contribute to student dissatisfaction and lower levels of student achievement. In turn, this can affect larger issues of university retention. This article considers whether different models of instruction in large classes affect student success and satisfaction. We compare a lecture-only class and one that combined lectures with smaller student breakout sessions. To our surprise, we found that students in the breakout—lecture class were not more satisfied and did not succeed at higher levels as compared to their peers in the lecture-only class. Above all, attendance is the key predictor of student success.

Discourse and dissonance: religious agendas in the 104th Congress

This paper investigates the religious dimension of Republican legislators’ participation in one-minute speeches during the 104th Congress (1995–1996). Many have characterized the House Republican Conference that emerged after the 1994 elections as a highly cohesive majority party. Even in that context, however, legislators represent varied personal agendas, and in part these are informed by religion. We topically coded a subset of floor speeches to measure the extent to which variation is observed in the issues addressed by Members of Congress. The findings demonstrate that on key policy domains, such as the role of government, culture, and social welfare, speech participation varies systematically on the basis of member religion. This suggests that legislative participation is influenced by genuine personal preferences in additional to strategic political factors.

Needs, Norms and Food Policy in the U.S. House of Representatives

Abstract This article investigates the influence of partisanship, religion, and district need on legislative behavior pertaining to food policy. Historically, policymaking is this area has been decidedly bipartisan, because it provided opportunities for logrolling among legislators. As the parties became more ideologically polarized and as budget pressures mounted, some suggested the food coalition would break down. To test this argument, this article analyzes legislative behavior on food and agriculture measures in the U.S. House of Representatives in 106th Congress. The findings indicate that while party, ideology, religion, and district need all affect legislative behavior, there is still a bipartisan majority coalition of legislators that supports food assistance.

It Was My Understanding That There Would Be No Math: Using Thematic Cases to Teach Undergraduate Research Methods.

ABSTRACT Undergraduates frequently approach research methods classes with trepidation and skepticism, owing in part to math-phobia and confusion over how methodology is relevant to their interests. These self-defeating barriers to learning undermine the efficacy of methods classes. This essay discusses a strategy for overcoming these barriers—use of a case study as a thematic framework for the class. In theory, the case study engages students and renders the material less abstract. A research methods class recently taught by the author was organized around political assassinations, with an initial framing focus the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In an end of semester Qualtrics survey, students reported that they liked this approach and believe that it kept them interested in the material. “[S]tats are dry. The Kennedys are not dry.” ∼A student