Congressional Voting On the Nuclear Freeze Resolutions

Abstract

This study compares the relative utility of ideology, party, presidential support, and regionalism in understanding congressional voting on several nuclear freeze proposals in 1982 and 1983. Both ideology and presidential support provide good explanations for freeze voting over these years, whereas region and party prove to be relatively less important. Because both types of models are so closely related, and because both seem to be tapping an underlying ideological dimension, it is difficult to distinguish fully between them. Nevertheless, this analysis suggests that the ideological models (as measured by ADA scores) prove to be more parsimonious than the presidential support models (as measured by support for President Reagan). On balance, this research provides additional evidence for the importance of ideology in understanding critical American foreign policy decisions.