Do ideology and party platforms affect the content of foreign policy
or do material interests didctate foreign policy?

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Request for Question Clarification by lmnop-ga on 22 Mar 2003 06:15 PST

What kind of sources would you consider accurate? Many of us can offer
educated guesses, but I'm thinking you may want a particular study
comparing, say, the ideology espoused by a particular politician
compared to their actual voting record afterwards. Something like
that? Might be a tall order, but it's a good quesion.

It is safe to say that a broad meaning of material interests typically
have more weight than ideology and party platforms which tend to be PR
or even propaganda in the USA as well as most other countries. Rare
exceptions occur and frequently some ideology and party platform are
at least a minor concideration. I don't think there is any way to
accurately say it is 12% ideology, 9% party platform, 8% errors, 66%
material interests and 5% miscelaneous, but that is probably a good
guess.   Neil