A State s Political Culture And Its Effect On The...

Representative governments that are more characteristic of their population are thought to better serve their citizens. It is unreasonable to argue that a government made up of entirely white, middle-aged men would wholly understand the interests of a Native American woman in her twenties. What makes governments more reflective of their population? More specifically, what causes more women to participate in state legislatures? In this paper, I will argue that, according to the data, states with a non-moralistic political culture are more likely to have a greater number of women that participate in state legislatures. After comparing the political culture variable to other variables that I believed would also have a meaningful impact, I†¦show more content†¦The R-Script for the regression model will be included in the appendix. The main hypothesis texted in this paper is, â€Å"Are states with a moralistic culture more likely to have a legislature with a greater number of women than states with a non-moralistic culture?† According to political scientist Daniel Elazar, there are three types of political cultures in the United States: individualistic, moralistic, and traditionalistic. Each type of culture perceives politics differently, but the moralistic culture views it as â€Å"a concern for all citizens.† It is probable that states with this culture are more likely to have a greater number of women in the legislature since moralistic cultures perceive politics more democratically than the other two cultures. This democratic environment would be more likely to promote all groups of people to participate in government at all levels, including state legislatures. Individualistic cultures and traditionalistic cultures are more likely to believe that a select few will participate in politics an d that it rarely concerns the â€Å"commonwealth† or the general will. After considering what other independent variables to incorporate in the model to test this hypothesis, I decided to include the Cook Index variable and the urban population variable. I chose to include the Cook Index variable because a states