Replication Data for: Economic Interests and Threat Assessment in the U.S. Congress, 1890–1914

Why do some domestic actors see the international environment as a threatening place populated by untrustworthy powers, when others find opportunities for peaceful cooperation in the same conditions? Because these actors confront the same international environment, the reasons for their divergent evaluations must rest on differences in their own beliefs and interests. In this article, we consider the impact of societal interests in trade and trade protection on elite assessments of the international environment. We examine evaluations of the international environment in speeches given in the US Congress during naval appropriations debates between 1890 and 1914. The manufacturing sector’s interest in trade protection led political leaders who represented manufacturing regions to offer more negative assessments of the international environment, while those representing export-oriented agricultural areas of the country gave more positive evaluations. These effects were roughly comparable to those associated with party, as well as individual-level characteristics, such as having served as a military officer.为何部分国内行为体将国际环境视为由不可信强国构成的威胁场域，而另一些行为体却在相同情境中觅得和平合作的机遇？鉴于这些行为体身处同一国际环境，其评估出现分歧的根源必然在于自身信念与利益的差异。本文探讨贸易与贸易保护的社会利益对精英阶层国际环境评估的影响。我们以1890年至1914年间美国国会海军拨款辩论中的演讲文本为分析样本，考察议员对国际环境的评价。研究结果显示，代表制造业选区的政治领袖因制造业部门的贸易保护诉求，会对国际环境做出更为负面的评价；而代表出口导向型农业地区的议员则给出更为积极的评估。此类影响的强度大致与党派因素，以及议员个人层面特征（如曾担任军官）的影响相当。