The authors demonstrate that state policies are highly responsive to public opinion through the analysis of state policies from the 1930s to the present.

Preface; 1. Democratic states; 2. Measuring state partisanship and ideology; 3. Accounting for state differences in opinion; 4. Public opinion and policy in the American states; 5. State parties and state policy; 6. Legislative elections and state policy; 7. Political culture and policy representation; 8. Partisanship, ideology and state elections; 9. State opinion over time; 10. Conclusions: democracy in the American states; References; Index.