Full Citation

Title: Not Polarization, Asymmetry: Party Positions and the Political Compromise of Earned Income Tax Credits

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2014

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: We examine how the distribution of party ideological positions affects legislatures capacity to produce compromise legislation in particular, one of the United States most significant bipartisan social policy compromises, the Earned Income Tax Credit. We depart from the current literature by arguing that it is not partisan polarization that is responsible for causing stalemate on this issue. Rather, the asymmetry in party ideologies matters more than the ideological distance between the parties in explaining the success of this traditionally bipartisan proposal. Our results have important implications for the study of party ideology and social policy development, and suggest that ideological asymmetry needs to be considered as an important factor in legislative gridlock.

Url: http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/williamson/files/not_polarization_asymmetry_52014.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander; Williamson, Vanessa

Publisher: Harvard University

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Other

Countries: