Class Year

2028

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Fall 2025

Department 1

Political Science

Abstract

What influences Americans' attitudes on social welfare? Why do some Americans vote seemingly against their interests? Using data from the 2020 National Election Survey, this paper will test hypotheses examining how rurality and Republican partisanship are associated with lower favorability toward social welfare spending. This paper will also analyze the current literature on immigration, locality, and partisanship to see how they shape attitudes toward welfare spending. Overall, the regression models show that Republican partisanship is more correlated with support for social welfare cuts than an individual’s rurality. This study is important for understanding how partisanship shapes attitudes on policy and the impact of an individual’s rural identity.

Comments

Written for POL 215: Statistical Methods of Political Science.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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