Partisanship and Foreign Policy

Authors

Sauran Mussin, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Spring 5-14-2015

Faculty Advisor(s)

Ann Gordon

Abstract

Throughout the Cold War era matters of US foreign policy have been met with increasing bipartisanship as a result of the looming threat of a possible military confrontation with the USSR. Divergence between the two parties was sidelined due to the necessity for unity on account of the military and economical threat that rivaled US interests. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more recently post 9/11 era and the launch of the Global War on Terror there has been an increasing partisanship disagreement within the US government towards foreign policy. This research paper will attempt to explain the relationship between partisanship and attitudes towards foreign policy specifically how it affects views on defense spending. The crosstab data revealed that 18.3% of Republicans favored increasing defense spending compared to 11.5% of Democrats. Interestingly enough my initial hypotheses that Republicans will favor increasing defense spending more than Democrats was not supported by the findings due to the weak correlation between the variables. Further research will be required to determine why this occurs since it contradicts existing literature that supports my hypothesis.

Comments

Presented at the Spring 2015 Student Research Day at Chapman University.

Recommended Citation

Mussin, Sauran, "Partisanship and Foreign Policy" (2015). Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters. 146.
https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cusrd_abstracts/146