Armenian Genocide Recognition in Congress

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Keywords

Armenian Genocide, recognition, cosponsorship, U.S. Congress, Genocide, Representatives, members of Congress, demographics, constituency, legislation

Department

Political Science

Major

Political Science

Abstract

Although independent scholars and many countries throughout the world recognize that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915-17 was in fact genocide, the United States government struggles with its own formal recognition. The U.S. Congress has repeatedly declined to use the word genocide, arguably out of concern over American geo-political interests. In this paper I examine the roots of the U.S.’ hesitancy by analyzing support for House Resolution 106, which was introduced in 2007 to the 110th Congress. Absent roll call votes, I use cosponsorship to measure House members’ support for recognition or the lack thereof. Independent variables include members' characteristics and constituency demographics. I hypothesize that Representatives’ religion will play an important role, especially membership in the same Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition. I also expect sex to be a significant determinant of cosponsorship since empirically congresswomen vote more liberally and show greater support for human rights than do their male counterparts. I also anticipate a statistically significant finding from representatives whose constituency is densely populated with Armenians. Since scholars make a connection between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, I suspect Jewish Representatives will show support. Lastly, I predict that more non-White members will cosponsor the bill in a sign of solidarity as people of color. Using ordered-logit regression, I find that constituency and members’ ideology, region, constituents’ socio-economic status, and members’ religious traditions all appear to influence their support for this measure.

Faculty Mentor

Joel Fetzer

Funding Source or Research Program

Political Science Honors Program

Presentation Session

Session A

Location

Plaza Classroom 188

Start Date

1-4-2016 3:30 PM

End Date

1-4-2016 3:45 PM

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Apr 1st, 3:30 PM Apr 1st, 3:45 PM

Armenian Genocide Recognition in Congress

Plaza Classroom 188

Although independent scholars and many countries throughout the world recognize that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915-17 was in fact genocide, the United States government struggles with its own formal recognition. The U.S. Congress has repeatedly declined to use the word genocide, arguably out of concern over American geo-political interests. In this paper I examine the roots of the U.S.’ hesitancy by analyzing support for House Resolution 106, which was introduced in 2007 to the 110th Congress. Absent roll call votes, I use cosponsorship to measure House members’ support for recognition or the lack thereof. Independent variables include members' characteristics and constituency demographics. I hypothesize that Representatives’ religion will play an important role, especially membership in the same Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition. I also expect sex to be a significant determinant of cosponsorship since empirically congresswomen vote more liberally and show greater support for human rights than do their male counterparts. I also anticipate a statistically significant finding from representatives whose constituency is densely populated with Armenians. Since scholars make a connection between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, I suspect Jewish Representatives will show support. Lastly, I predict that more non-White members will cosponsor the bill in a sign of solidarity as people of color. Using ordered-logit regression, I find that constituency and members’ ideology, region, constituents’ socio-economic status, and members’ religious traditions all appear to influence their support for this measure.