Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T02:15:14.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hypothesis Testing for Group Structure in Legislative Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Justin H. Kirkland
Justin H. Kirkland*
Affiliation:
University of Houston, TX, USA
*
Justin H. Kirkland, Department of Political Science, The University of Houston, 447 Phillip Gutherie Hoffman Hall Houston, TX 77204-3011, TX, USA. Email: jhkirkla@central.uh.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars of social networks often rely on summary statistics to measure and compare the structures of their networks of interest. However, measuring the uncertainty inherent in these summaries can be challenging, thus making hypothesis testing for network summaries difficult. Computational and nonparametric procedures can overcome these difficulties by allowing researchers to generate reference distributions for comparison directly from their data. In this research, I demonstrate the use of nonparametric hypothesis testing in networks using the popular network summary statistic network modularity. I provide a method based on permutation testing for assessing whether a particular network modularity score is larger than a researcher might expect due to random chance. I then create a simulation study of network modularity and its simulated reference distribution that I propose. Finally, I provide an empirical example of this technique using cosponsorship networks from U.S. state legislatures.

Keywords

legislative politicscomparative legislatureslegislative behaviormethodologynetwork analysisquantitative methodsmethodologysimulations
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 225 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balla, Steven J. 2001. “Interstate Professional Associations and the Diffusion of Policy Innovations.” American Politics Research 29(3): 221–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonica, Adam. 2012. “Ideology and Interests in the Political Marketplace.” American Journal of Political Science. First Published Online. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1520557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratton, Kathleen A., and Rouse, Stella M.. 2011. “Networks in the Legislative Arena: How Group Dynamics Affect Cosponsorship.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 36(3): 423–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A., and Patterson, Samuel C.. 1987. “Political Friendship in the Legislature.” The Journal of Politics 49:953–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A., and Patterson, Samuel C.. 1988. “Contours of Friendship and Respect in the Legislature.” American Politics Research 16:466–85.Google Scholar
Clark, John A., Caldeira, Gregory A., and Patterson, Samuel C.. 1993. “Political Respect in the Legislature.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 18:3–28.Google Scholar
Csardi, Gabor, and Nepusz, Tamas. 2006. “The igraph Software Package for Complex Network Research.” InterJournal Complex Systems: 1695, http://igraph.sf.net (accessed January 5, 2013).Google Scholar
Edgington, Eugene S., and Onghena, Patrick. 2007. Randomization Tests. 4th ed. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., Pinto, Pablo M., and Rader, Kelly T.. 2010. “Randomization Tests and Multilevel Data in State Politics.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 10:180–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, James H. 2006a. “Connecting the Congress: A Study of Cosponsorship Networks.” Political Analysis 14:456–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, James H. 2006b. “Legislative Cosponsorship Networks in the US House and Senate.” Social Networks 28:454–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkland, Justin H. 2011. “The Relational Determinants of Legislative Outcomes: Strong and Weak Ties between Legislators.” Journal of Politics 73(3): 887–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkland, Justin H. 2012. “Multimember Districts' Effect on Collaboration between US State Legislators.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 37(3): 329–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martorano, Nancy. 2004. “Cohesion or Reciprocity? Majority Party Strength and Minority Party Procedural Rights in the Legislative Process.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 4(1): 55–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masket, Seth E. 2008. “Where You Sit is Where You Stand: The Impact of Seating Proximity on Legislative Cue-Taking.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 3:301–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, Ian. 2011. “Migration and Sorting in the American Electorate: Evidence from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study.” American Politics Research 39(3): 512–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintrom, Michael, and Vergari, S.. 1998. “Policy Networks and Innovation Diffusion: The Case of State Education Reforms.” Journal of Politics 60:126–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Mark E. J. 2001. “The Structure of Scientific Collaboration Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98(2): 404–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Mark E. J. 2004. “Fast Algorithm for Detecting Community Structure in Networks.” Physics Review E 69(6): 066133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newman, Mark E. J. 2006. “Modularity and Community Structures in Social Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103:8577–582.Google Scholar
Newman, Mark E. J., and Girvan, M.. 2004. “Finding and Evaluating Community Structure in Networks.” Physics Review E 69(2): 026113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Gorman, Thomas W. 2005. “The Performance of Randomization Tests that Use Permutations of Independent Variables.” Communications in Statistics–Simulation and Computation 34:895–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peoples, Clayton D. 2008. “Interlegislator Relations and Policy Making: A Sociological Study of Roll-Call Voting in a State Legislature.” Sociological Forum 23:455–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons, Pascal, and Latapy, Matthieu. 2005. “Computing Communities in Large Networks Using Random Walks.” In Computer and Information Sciences - ISCIS 2005, ed. Yolum, Pinar, Gungor, Tunga, and 3733: of Lecture Notes in Computer Science Fikret Gurgen Can Ozturan. Vol. Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, 284–93.Google Scholar
Porter, Mason A., Mucha, Peter J., Newman, M. E. J., and Friend, A. J.. 2007. “Community Structure in the United States House of Representatives.” Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications 386(1): 414–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Mason A., Mucha, Peter J., Newman, M. E. J., and Warmbrand, Casey M.. 2005. “A Network Analysis of Committees in the US House of Representatives.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102(20): 7057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Mason A., Onnela, Jukka-Pekka, and Mucha, Peter J.. 2009. “Communities in Networks.” Notices of the AMS 56(9): 1082–1097.Google Scholar
Raghavan, Usha Nandini, Albert, Réka, and Kumara, Soundar. 2007. “Near Linear Time Algorithm to Detect Community Structures in Large-Scale Networks.” Physical Review E 76(3):036106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
R Development Core Team. 2008. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing, http://www.r-project.org (accessed January 5, 2013).Google Scholar
Reichardt, Jörg, and Bornholdt, Stefan. 2006. “Statistical Mechanics of Community Detection.” Physical Review E 74(1):016110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarbaugh-Thompson, Majorie Lyke Thomspon, Elder, Charles D., Comins, Meg, Elling, Richard D., and Strate, John. 2006. “Democracy among Strangers: Term Limits Effects on Relationships between State Legislators in Michigan.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 6:384–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shor, Boris, and McCarty, Nolan M.. 2011. “The Ideological Mapping of American Legislatures.” The American Political Science Review 105(3): 530–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Gerald C., and Schaffner, Brian F.. 2002. “The Influence of Party: Evidence from State Legislatures.” American Political Science Review 96(2): 367–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar