Institute of Governmental Studies

Recent successful tests of the Theater High-Altitude Air Defense System (THAAD) and the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) against simulated incoming ballistic missiles have again thrust the issue of ballistic missile defense (BMD) into the policy spotlight. Scholars have typically included defense spending in studies of distributive politics. This paper studies the determinants of ballistic missile policy in Congress, distinguishing between the public sphere of floor voting and less-visible activism as measures of policy support. Many theories exist that purport to explain support for defense projects, yet few of them distinguish between different kinds of support. This paper advances the theory that funding support in Congress cannot be easily measured, and that voting is expected to show signs of rigid partisanship while cosponsorship–a better measure of true policy activism–reflects more nuanced influences. This theory is then tested against the data on Congress in the 1990s.