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Senate Defense Budgeting, 1981-1988

The Impacts of Ideology, Party, and Constituency Benefit on the Decision to Support the President

Texas Christian University

Studying Senate roll call votes during the Reagan administration sheds light on the interaction of party, ideology, and local economic benefit as explanatory factors in a senator's decision to support the president's position on defense spending issues. Party and ideology are found to be the most important of these three, but their effects change when moving from consideration of major procurement issues to those involving the use, training, and readiness of the nation's military. Further, incorporating issue-based differences and indirect effects into the analysis suggests the effects of local economic benefit are not as inconsequential as some recent studies have argued. In summary, these findings focus attention on the role played by elections and the circumstances in which presidential leadership may be most effective on defense spending issues.

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