In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

173 Appendix C Profiling Support for S. 380 Appendix C presents further analysis underpinning the discussion of Senate support for S. 380 in Chapter 6. There are clear partisan underpinnings to support for full employment legislation. As Table C.1 presents, the Democratic average on the full employment score is almost twice the overall mean of 0.36. The Republican mean score, however, falls well below the total average score. Table C.1 Senate Full Employment Mean Scores by Region and Party Region (n ) Mean Democratic mean Republican mean New England (12) 0.62 0.50 0.77 Mid-Atlantic (8) 0.42 1.00 −0.55 East North-Central (10) −0.06 1.00 −0.33 West North-Central (14) −0.03 1.00 −0.11 Border (10) 0.33 0.62 −0.67 South (20) 0.42 0.42 Mountain (16) 0.59 1.00 −1.00 Pacific (6) 0.79 1.00 0.56 National (96) 0.36 0.71 −0.15 Total cases 96a 55 40 The regional variation in support for full employment is also quite interesting . The New England and Pacific Coast regions have the most consistently high scores, regardless of party identification. All of the other regions, with the exception of the exclusively Democratic South, have a partisan split in their mean scores on full employment. The East and West North-Central regions are the least supportive of full employment. It is possible that electoral factors might influence whether a senator would support such an avant-garde (but potentially popular) piece of legislation. One could speculate that senators who are more secure electorally would be more likely to deviate from their party’s position on S. 380 because it is easier for them to take risks. The importance that the Democratic Party leadership placed on this bill suggests that the more seasoned legislators supported it. Tenure in office might have had an intervening effect on the importance of electoral factors. a Democratic and Republican cases do not sum to total because one senator was an Independent. In order to view this proof accurately, the Overprint Preview Option must be checked in Acrobat Professional or Adobe Reader. Please contact your Customer Service Representative if you have questions about finding the option. Job Name: -- /347091t 174 Wasem The importance of partisan identification, discussed above, is not forgotten in this context. Republicans came from states that were wealthier, both in 1943 and 1933, and that had experienced less of a percentage increase in urbanization from 1920 to 1940. The difference in state unemployment rates between Democratic and Republican senators, however, is trivial. These differences are small, but the directions in which they move are consistent and expected. The findings, though based upon simple analyses, hint that less relative wealth and greater vulnerability to unemployment might be linked to support for full employment. These results do not challenge what we might intuitively hypothesize from the earlier discussion of public opinion, but they beg for further scrutiny (Table C.2). It is enlightening to refine the inquiry by looking at senators whose scores deviated from their party’s average score. For the purposes here, deviance is defined as Democrats who score negatively on the full employment scale and Republicans who score positively. Table C.3 presents some rather interesting patterns. The lowest rates of unemployment are in states with Democrats who have negative scores on full employment. These same Democrats also represent states that, on average, are the poorest in 1943 and that have experienced the slowest growth in per capita personal income over the previous decade. For the most part, these deviant Democrats are from the South. Republicans who score positively on full employment do not differ meaningfully from their fellow Republicans except in regard to urbanization. These deviant Republicans come from states with the lowest average increase in urbanization from 1920 to 1940. This phenomenon is largely attributable to Republicans from New England states that already had high levels of urbanization. Table C.2 Economic and Demographic Characteristics by Senators’ Party Mean value Democrat Republican Unemployment rate (%) 14.1 14.3 Per capita personal income, 1943 ($) 908 1,043 Per capita personal income, 1933 ($) 280 341 Change in per capita income, 1933–1943 (%) 2.1 2.3 Change in urban population, 1920–1940 (%) 6.2 4.3 Total cases 55 40 In order to view this proof accurately, the Overprint Preview Option must be checked in Acrobat Professional or Adobe Reader. Please contact your Customer Service...

Share