EDITORIALS AS A MEASURE OF IDEOLOGY:
ADA RATINGS ON DOMESTIC POLICY AND EDITORIAL POSITIONING
by
Carl Grafton and Anne Permaloff
Department of Political Science and Public Administration
Auburn University Montgomery
PO Box 244023
Montgomery, AL 36124-4023
334 244-3698
cgrafton@mail.aum.edu apermalo@mail.aum.edu
Paper Prepared for Presentation at the 2004 Meetings of the Southern Political Science
Association, New Orleans, LA, January 8-10, 2004.
1
Abstract
Domestic policy editorial positions of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street
Journal, and National Review are examined in relation to the Americans for Democratic Action
(ADA) policies commonly used to rate members of Congress. The editorials of the four
publications in the years 1962-1998 not only correlate highly to ADA positions but represent a
fuller set of public policy positions taken by both the liberal and conservative sides.
EDITORIALS AS A MEASURE OF IDEOLOGY:
ADA RATINGS ON DOMESTIC POLICY AND EDITORIAL POSITIONING
We are engaged in the behavioral study of the relationships between political ideology
and public policy formulation, focusing on why ideological change occurs, how ideology and
ideological change affect public policy, and the dynamic relationships between ideologies in the
context of policy formulation. So far, we have examined public policy for business and
economics (Grafton and Permaloff, 2001), domestic public policy formulation for areas other
than business and economics (Permaloff and Grafton, 2003), and the application of signed
digraphs to the study of ideology and public policy (Grafton and Permaloff, in press a). A major
part of this work used newspaper and journal of opinion editorials as a way to measure ideology.
Editorials include all policy areas on or near the public agenda and a wide range of issues.
The eccentricities of individual authors are constrained by the institutional nature of publishing
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