The "General Policy Liberalism" Factor in American State Politics

Abstract

A dimension of general policy liberalism in state policy efforts is derived from a factor analysis and includes both expenditures and regulatory policy measures covering an extended time period. States with a generally liberal policy record tend to be nonsouthern coastal or Great Lakes states and tend to have a large, urban, diverse, advantaged population; a liberal, Moralistic, active political culture; a highly developed but stagnating economy; and a government with high levels of institutional and fiscal capability. The factor is best explained by the Sullivan index of sociocultural diversity in conjunction with either the Elazar-Sharkansky index of political culture or rate of population loss, with either model accounting for over 70 percent of the variance. Implications are drawn concerning the interpretation and future investigation of the sources of public policy.