Individual Preference versus Role-Constraint in Policy-Making: Senatorial Response to Secretaries Acheson and Dulles

Abstract

Frequently debated, infrequently resolved, but crucial to the study of international relations is the issue of the relative influence of personal factors and role factors in decision-making. Are national decision-makers so constrained by their roles that they have little individual freedom? Or, conversely, are their policies shaped in major ways by their own individual preferences

Personality and isolationism: Content analysis of senatorial speeches.

“…High levels of reproducibility and scalability indicate that the voting issues measure a simple, consistent attitude dimension (such as isolationism-internationalism). The reproducibility and scalability coefficients reported by previous investigators (e.g., Stassen, 1972) were remarkably high: .99 and .98, respectively.…”

“…We decided therefore to focus on only those senators whom Rosenau (1968) and Stassen (1972) labeled as "articulate" on foreign policy issues (i.e., senators who frequently spoke on this subject). Thirty-five senators were included in the final sample.…”

“…Thirty-five senators were included in the final sample. According to Stassen's (1972) Guttman scaling of legislators' voting on issues relevant to isolationism, 16 of the senators can be clearly classified as nonisolationists, 8 as ambivalent isolationists, and 11 as isolationists. "…”

“…These content analysis methods were applied to statements given on the Senate floor by senators who had been classified on the basis of voting record as isolationist, ambivalent toward isolationism, or nonisolationist. Past research-using Guttman scaling of voting patterns on foreign policy issues-indicates the existence of systematic individual differences in isolationist orientation among senators (Belknap, 1959;Farris, 1959;Stassen, 1972). 2 The plan of the present study was straightforward: to analyze speeches of senators who varied in their commitment to an isolationist foreign policy, and then to examine relationships between the content analysis indicators and isolationism.…”

Foreign Policy Formation of Authoritarian States in Central Asia Since 1991

“…On the other hand, Shapiro and Bonham (1973), and Stassen (1972) underscore that personal characteristics are more Kazakhstan and President Islam A. Karimov of Uzbekistan by taking into account their personal characteristics. Second, this article focuses on the sub-national identity of each state.…”