15
To carry out the analysis of this project, we utilize a dataset that contains
measures of constituent and political factors for each representative during the Clinton
time period. We measure partisanship or party affiliation with a dummy variable coded 1
for Democratic members and 0 for Republican members of the House of Representatives.
We utilized Congressional Quarterly’s Congressional Roll Call to collect this data. We
also include a measure of representative ideology in our model. Like previous studies,
we turn to a measure of ideology constructed by the Americans for Democratic Action
(ADA). The ADA selects a series of roll call votes that indicate a liberal preference
among legislators and rates their support for the liberal position based on those votes.
Higher ADA scores indicate that the representative is more liberal oriented.
Furthermore, we measure the strength of legislators’ political calculus through
their seniority. As representatives become more senior and established within the
chamber, they become less likely to simply follow the foreign policy preferences of the
party or their constituents. Thus, seniority increases the ability of representatives to act
out their perceived best judgment (Clausen 1973). Seniority is measured by the number
of consecutive years. We also consider whether geographic region of the legislator
influences trade policy voting behavior. Specifically, we utilized a dummy variable
coded 1 for Southern representatives and 0 for all other House representatives.
16
As previously mentioned, unlike other studies, we include a number of constituent
factors to account for a House representative trade voting patterns. For one, we measure
examining whether a representative follows presidential leadership in the realm of trade legislation. This is
because we expect that the independent influences will be in the opposite direction in the latter case.
16
Southern states are those states formerly of the Confederacy and thus include Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Data for seniority, southern legislator and electoral margin of victory was gathered from Congressional
Roll Call.
Convention