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Elite Opinion Differences and Partisanship in Congressional Foreign Policy, 1975-1996

Florida State University, Tallahassee

David Rohde

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Why are some foreign policy votes partisan and others bipartisan? The authors argue that an electoral connection drives partisanship in congressional foreign policy voting. Members of Congress depend on core supporters for mobilization and money, and primary voters are likely to follow the opinion cues of partisan elites; as a result, when Republican and Democratic opinion elites hold more distinct views on an issue, one may expect to observe more partisan behavior in Congress on both low and high-politics foreign policy issues. An empirical analysis of elite public opinion and congressional voting on foreign policy issues for six Congresses between 1975 and 1996 supports the elite opinion cleavage argument.

Key Words: American foreign policy • Congress • public opinion

Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 1, 113-123 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1065912906298630


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