Arguing Over America’s Best Idea: Examining the Congressional Partisan Divide with Regard to Public Lands Policy

Students: Anna Medema
Major: Political Science
Minor: Environmental Studies
Advisors: Dr. Bas van Doorn, Dr. Angela Bos

This Independent Study investigates the effect of political party on Congressional roll-call votes on public lands policies and how this effect changes over time. The results of my study show that, beginning around the 1990s, Senators began to divide along party lines on public lands policies. Democratic Senators voted increasingly in favor of public lands policies, while their Republican counterparts became less likely to support these policies. However, there are Republicans today who vote in favor of public lands policies. I found that, when talking publicly about public lands, these Republican Senators frequently make appeals to their constituency by referencing the lands in their state.

Anna will be online to field comments on May 8:
2-4pm EDT (PST 11am-1pm, Africa/Europe: evening)

Posted in I.S. Symposium, Independent Study on April 30, 2020.