Congressional voting and foreign policy: Domestic factors in Sino-U.S. relations, 1949-1990

The study examines the impact of five major domestic factors on congressional voting in China policy from 1949-1990. These factors are ideology, party, constituency, regionalism and personal social and political background. The method for the inquiry is a combination of quantitative roll call analysis with intensive case study.;In the House of Representatives, the dominant factor is ideology and the influence of party is secondary. In the period of 1950-1968, there was an ideology consensus of anti-communism in the House. This ideological hegemony suppressed other factors and maintained a unity in House China policy voting. After 1968, the consensus collapsed and was replaced by an ideological cleavage between the liberals and conservatives. Generally, the House liberals were more pro-China than the House conservatives. However, a switch of position took place in the 101st Congress (1989-1990), in the aftermath of 1989 student movement in Beijing. The influence of ideology went far beyond the voting stage in the House and permeated other legislative activities related to China policy.;In the Senate, there was a shift from ideological voting to partisan voting. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was also an anti-communist consensus in Senate China policy voting. This ideology unity broke down in the early 1970s, and since then party became the dominant factor and the influence of ideology faded away. The Senate Democrats were generally more pro-China than the Senate Republicans. But on human rights issues, the Senate Democrats took much tougher stands than their Republican counterparts. Higher party pressure was a major cause for the partisan voting in the Senate.;Constituency, regionalism and personal characteristics either had no effect or had a weak impact on China policy voting in Congress.;Overall, the five factors combined together can explain and predict 50-82% of the China policy votes in the House and 59-83% of the votes in the Senate.