Replication data for: Lawmaking and Roll Calls

The principal problem in testing lawmaking theories is that many analysts use roll call votes -- or various measures based on roll call votes -- when, in fact, these votes are partly a cause and partly a consequence of the very things the theories seek to explain.

This leads to erroneous substantive conclusions and characterizations. I show how embedding the theoretical predictions of the party gatekeeping and majoritarian theories of lawmaking within a statistical model used to estimate ideal points yields a straightforward test; if the gridlock interval measured using votes on policies predicted by the theories is nonzero, the theory is false. Implementing the test reveals little support for either theory