@article{5f49e6f6785e4269b8af54ca93eb08c7,
title = "UK OC OK? Interpreting optimal classification scores for the U.K. House of Commons",
abstract = "Poole's (2000, Non-parametric unfolding of binary choice data. Political Analysis 8:211-37) nonparametric Optimal Classification procedure for binary data produces misleading rank orderings when applied to the modern House of Commons. With simulations and qualitative evidence, we show that the problem arises from the government-versus-opposition nature of British (Westminster) parliamentary politics and the strategic voting that is entailed therein. We suggest that political scientists think seriously about strategic voting in legislatures when interpreting results from such techniques.",
author = "Arthur Spirling and Iain McLean",
note = "Funding Information: Authors{\textquoteright} note: Financial and technical support from The Star Lab is gratefully acknowledged. We are very grateful to three anonymous referees for insightful comments on both content and structure. All errors and omissions remain ours and ours alone. 1The full list is available on application from the authors. Appendix C gives some replication information that readers may find helpful. Funding Information: Commensurate with this principled rhetoric, several MPs who would later rebel made seemingly ideological statements in Commons{\textquoteright} debates on the subject. The Conservative opposition is by both reputation and ideological commitment generally critical of broad-based state benefits funded by taxation. So, in response to Berry{\textquoteright}s proposed amendment to the government bill—an amendment that would drop means testing—we might therefore expect the Conservatives to join Labour and overwhelmingly reject it precisely because means testing disability benefit is presumably an improvement for the Conservatives relative to the status quo. In practice, the Conservatives supported the amendment, and voted with the rebels.6 This support included the then shadow (opposition) Secretary of State for Social Security, Iain Duncan Smith. In this case, the Labour rebels appear to have voted sincerely and the Conservatives strategically. Copyright: Copyright 2007 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2007",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1093/pan/mpl009",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "15",
pages = "85--96",
journal = "Political Analysis",
issn = "1047-1987",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
number = "1",
}