Partisan Differences On Environmental Issues: a Congressional Roll-Call Analysis

HE ISSUE of environmental quality has often been viewed as a consensus issue which transcends the partisan differences characteristic of most political issues. This consensus and nonpartisan view of environmental politics is challenged in a recent study by Dunlap and Gale.l In contrast to many observers, Dunlap and Gale argue that there are important reasons for expecting significant partisan differences to emerge on environmental issues. On the one hand, "proenvironmental" measures generally are opposed by business and industry, entail an extension of governmental regulation and intervention, and imply the need for "radical" rather than "incremental" policies. On the other hand, traditionally the Republican party, relative to the Democratic, has maintained a more pro-business orientation, a greater opposition to the extension of governmental power, and a less innovative posture toward the use of governmental action to solve societal problems. For these reasons, Dunlap and Gale hypothesized that Republicans would give significantly less support to measures designed to protect the quality of the environment than would Democrats. They tested the hypothesis in the 1970 session of the Oregon legislature, where it received considerable support. Republican legislators were found to rank significantly lower than their Democratic counterparts in terms of "pro-environment" voting on relevant roll calls. Although the hypothesis presented by Dunlap and Gale is supported by their study of Oregon legislators, as well as recent studies of California2 and Utah legislators,3 it is by no means clear that similar partisan differences on the issue of environmental quality exist at the national level. It seems possible, for example, that partisan differences may not emerge at the congressional level because labor unions. which are extremely influential among the Democratic members of Congress, often oppose environmental measures which purportedly threaten to eliminate jobs for their members.4 Given the critical role of the U.S. Congress in providing federal funds and establishing national standards for preserving the quality of the environ-