Incremental polarization: a unified spatial theory of legislative elections, parties and roll call voting

In Incremental Polarization, Justin Buchler fills critical gaps in our understanding of legislative polarization by crafting a unified spatial theory of legislative elections, parties, and roll call voting. He contends that we need to move beyond elections and factor in Congress members' behavior in roll call voting-where a different but related spatial continuum operates

This text provides a unified spatial model of legislative elections, parties, and roll call voting to address three primary questions: why do legislators adopt extreme positions, how do they win given their extremism, and what role do parties play in promoting polarization? Justin Buchler links spatial models of elections to spatial models of roll call voting in the legislature, and suggests that the key to understanding polarization is to reverse the order of conventional models and place the legislative session before the election because legislators adopt positions in the policy space, extreme or otherwise, through the incremental process of casting roll call votes

In Incremental Polarization, Justin Buchler fills critical gaps in our understanding of legislative polarization by crafting a unified spatial theory of legislative elections, parties, and roll call voting. He contends that we need to move beyond elections and factor in Congress members' behavior in roll call voting-where a different but related spatial continuum operates.