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The Ideology Of Free Trade And The Cuba Exception, Michael C. Schena

LSU Master's Theses

This paper examines ideology and congressional roll call voting in the post-Cold War period (1991-2005) on free trade and trade policy with Cuba. While members with a more conservative ideology are found, as expected, to be supporters of free trade generally, there remains a curious disconnect between this general support for free trade and the opposition to liberalization of trade with Cuba. Yet despite this perceived inconsistency, ideology remains consistent on both, thus we seek to test this exception to conservative support for liberalization. A combination of factors is at play to which make Cuba a special case in the …