THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF STATE POLITICAL-IDEOLOGY - A MEASURE TESTED

Four different state political ideology measures are estimated and eva luated on the basis of their reliability and consistency. The state po litical ideology measure accounting for constituency economic interest , legislator shirking, and political Party loyalty is found to be the one with the most predictive power. Using this preferred ideology meas ure states were classified according to their political ideology along a conservative-liberal continuum. The state rankings showed there are distinct regional differences in ideology. The Northeast and Pacific regions are very liberal, the South and Mountain regions are very cons ervative, and the Midwest region is relatively moderate. States in the Mountain region are found to be the most ideologically homogeneous, w hile the more heavily populated states tend to be more liberal. In add ition, the United States citizens are found to have a moderately conse rvative political philosophy. Finally, the results suggest that a Demo cratic candidate would need to win Illinois, California, and Ohio plus all the liberal states to become President of the United States. The 1996 presidential note sustains the analysis herein.