POLS 127 MIDTERM Flashcards
(62 cards)
1
Q
Jacksonian Tradition: Definition
A
- american isolationist foreign policy
- based on morals - honor, self-reliance, individualism, hard work
- belief government should promote domestic interests above other nations
- MEAD READING
- America does not need reliance on other states for power
- when you are involved in war, use all available power
2
Q
Isolationism: Definition
A
- voluntary abstention
- from security-related politics
- in an area of the international system over which is it capable of exterting control
3
Q
Jacksonian Tradition: Alternative Frameworks
A
- Hamiltonian: support commerical interests
- Wilsonian: humanitarian concerns
- Jeffersonian: support farmers
- internationalism: involvement in other states’ affairs
4
Q
Jacksonian Tradition/Isolationism: Example
A
- BRAUMOELLER READING
- america characterized as isolationist during world wars
- False: AMFP based on banks rather than tanks - US responsible for European reconstruction
- U.S. fighting Nazis before pearl harbor
5
Q
Jacksonian Tradition: Significance
A
Political culture can influence foreign policy, rise of Donald Trump has coincided with rise of Jacksonian tradition/put america first strategy
6
Q
Structural Realism Definition
A
- international system is anarchic
- states primary concern is survival
- balance of power will dominate (internal and external balancing)
7
Q
Balance of Power Theory Definition
A
Developed by Waltz, assumes that states are unitary actors who minimally seek preservation and maximally seek universal domination
8
Q
Structural Realism Alternative Frameworks
A
Governmental Actors
9
Q
Structural Realism: Author
A
Waltz
10
Q
Structural Realism: Significance
A
foreign policy is a result of a system that brackets choice based on states relative position to other states
11
Q
American National Power: Components
A
- geography
- natural resources
- population
12
Q
Multipolarity Example
A
- World order prior to WWII
- internal balancing - U.S. aids major powers increase power
- significance: balance of power instabiltih led to WWII
13
Q
Bipolarity Example
A
- Cold War - US and USSR each competing to gain the most allies
- need to alleviate fear of abandonment/dominance
14
Q
Unipolarity Example
A
- current configuration
- internal balancing - each state increasing domestic power and resources to compete with U.S.
- american dominance decreases need/benefits of an alliance
15
Q
Presidential Power: Informal and Formal Bases
A
- persuasion (Neustadt): power to change beliefs of those around you
- media (Kernall): going public with policy in press interviews and comments
- constitution: chief diplomat, chief executive, and commander in chief
16
Q
Presidential Power: Example
A
Neustadt: LBJ and Tuesday lunches - participation tied to agreement with LBJ
17
Q
Presidential Structural Authority: Definition
A
- Skowronek
- presidential authority depends on: relationship with predecessor and current politics
18
Q
Politics of Disjunction: Definition & Example
A
- president affiliated with vulnerable previously established commitments
- least authority
- ex: Jimmy Carter
19
Q
Politics of Articulation: Definition and Example
A
- president affiliated with resilient previously established commitments
- ex: LBJ
20
Q
Politics of Reconstruction: Definition and Example
A
- president opposed to vulnerable previously established commitments
- where presidents have the most authrity
- ex: Obama, Lincoln
21
Q
Politics of Preemption: Definition and Example
A
- president opposed to resilient previously established commitments
- most dangerous/impeachment
- ex: Nixon, Trump
22
Q
Presidential Management Styles: Definition/Author
A
- preston
- based on presidents subjective definition of themselves and experience
23
Q
Navigators: Definition and Example
A
- nuanced views of foreign policy and past experience
- ex: Eisenhower - slow to make decisions
24
Q
Sentinels: Definition and Example
A
- black and white worldview with past experience
- ex: LBJ - imposed will on advisors irregardless of facts
25
Observers: Definition and Example
* nuanced worldview and no past experience
* Clinton - advisors given authority
26
Mavericks: Definition and Example
* black and white worldview with no past experience
* ex: Truman - poor decisionmaking
27
4 Forms of Congressional Influence
1. substantive legislation: imposing new costs on president
2. anticipated reactions to congress: imposing limits on presidential action
3. procedural legislation: change the participants of a decision
4. media: changing the focus on a debate (Howell & Pevehouse)
28
How congress uses its influence
1. treaties - advise and consent to treaties
2. funding - power of the purse
3. military expenditure - presidents limited by the military given to them by congress
4. tariffs - ceded power to levy tariffs to the president
5. war - congress has power to declare war
29
War Powers Resolution definition
requires the executive to consult congress before deployment of troops, 48 notification, and a time limit on deployment (vague definitions/rarely used)
30
Congressional Influence Limitations
* parochialism: congress cares about constituents/reelection
* partisanship (Howell & Pevehouse): care more about party unity than national security
* imperial presidency (Ornstein & Mann) can respond to asymmetric threats and respond faster than congress
31
Egocentric Bias Definition
* gap between how bureaucracies want to accomplish their goals and how they go about it
* due to competing interests
* gives bureaucracies significant power over policy
32
Chiefs vs. Indians
* Chiefs: executive heads of bureaucracu, political appointees
* Indians: career bureaucracies
33
Where you stand is where you sit
* notion that bureaucratic culture changes individual preference
* creates competition and bias with interpretation and advising
* makes policy decisions a bargaining process
34
Rational Policy Model: Definition and Author
* policy as the purposive acts of unified national governments
* states make rational choices
* allison reading
35
Rational Policy Model: Example
* U.S. blockade of Cuba seen as value-maximizing escalation
* 6 possible options surveyed
* 2 seen as viable (surgical airstrike and naval blockade)
36
Organizational Process Model: Definition and Author
* policy as outputs of large organizations functioning according to certain regular patterns of behavior
* based on standard operating procedures which are not tailored to specific situations/don't allow flexibility
* allison reading
37
Organizational Process Model: Example
- Cuban Missile Crisis - organizational fighting delayed information and decisionmaking
- airforce wanted surgical airstrike and navy wanted blockade
38
Bureaucratic Politics Model: Definition and Author
* states acts and choices are outcomes of various overlapping bargaining games among players arranged hierarchically in the national government
* 1. many actors, divergent interests
* 2. absence of omnipotence
* 3. decisions are a political bargain
* 4. gap between decision and implementation
39
Bureaucratic Politics Model: Example
* Cuban Missile Crisis - blackade was seen as sub-optimal outcome
* blockade could have resulted in war if USSR ships refused to stop
40
Bureaucratic Politics Significance
foreign poilicy is a poorly constructed bargain, not emblematic of national interest or strategy
41
Winning Coalition Definition
* subset of the selectorate who choose the leader (interest groups and corportions)
* provide the content of national interest
42
Winning Coalition Significance
* signifies national interests - even in a democracy - does not represent 'national' interest
* informal actors have the power to influence formal actors
43
Almond-Lippmann Consensus: Definition and Author
* Kertzer & Zeitzoff
* 1. public opinion is volatile/varies significantly
* 2. public opinion is incoherent - lacks logic and structure (converse)
* 3. public opinion is ineffectual/elites don't listen
44
Almond-Lippmann Consensus: Alternative Frameworks
1. Top-down approach: public opinion driven by elite cues
2. Kertzer & Zeitzoff: public opinion also comes from predispositions and peer networks
* study on foreign policy options and congressional/peer network support
* found: elites cues had nonsignificant effect, group cues are significant
45
Almond-Lippmann Consensus: Significance
* public opinion matters to the extent a president/congress believes it matters
* public opinion can cause presidents to take action (war to improve public approval)
46
Interest Groups: Definition and Author
* Dietrich reading
* an organized group which engaged in activity relative to government decisions
* indirectly influence foreign policy
* three types: business, ethnic, single-issue
* new fourth type: foreign interest group
47
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) definition
* act designed to monitor the activities of groups lobbying on behald of foreign causes
* make activities public information
48
Interest Group Roles
1. framing: packaging an issue in a way that attracts media and executive attention
2. assist congress in policy oversight (fire alarm oversight)
3. source of information and policy analysis
49
Interest Group Alternatives
* Media - influences through content, priming, framing, and cheap framing
50
Interest Group Examples/Authors
1. Dietrich: China MFN status - interest groups (students, human rights, agriculture, business) given direct access to congress/executive which allowed them to directly frame the MFN conditionality debate
2. Newhouse - ethnic groups (AIPAC, India, Armenia - McConnell)
3. Newhouse - foreign lobbies (Taiwan, China)
51
Fire Alarm Oversight Definition
* Dietrich reading
* interest groups bring attention to constituent needs or acute problems
52
Fire Alarm Interest Groups Alternative Frameworks
Alternative sources of interest group influence: elections & direct access
53
Fire Alarm Oversight: Significance
- through reporting and oversight, interest groups can frame politics to shape and influence what is discussed
54
Military Industrial Complex: Definition
* type of bsuiness interest group that uses the threat of national security to push their position
* war is seen as a business -> support a hawkish foreign policy (high defense, nationalism, and interventionalism)
55
Military Industrial Complex: Significance
* US captured by defense interests - could draw US into unnecessary wars/bankrupt country
56
Framing: Definition
* a mechanism of media influence through changing the content/causality of a story
57
Framing: Alternative Frameworks
1. content: providing different information/changing content (ex: NPR vs. Fox news)
2. priming: repeating the same story to increase its perceived significance (ex: Krosnick and Kinder - increased media attention on Iran-Contra scandal increased its salience and decreased presidential approval)
3. cheap framing: foreign policy from entertainment programs (ex: Baum)
58
Framing: Example
* Iyengar study on poverty
* personal accounts of poverty led to individual attributions of cause (and ignored the impact of leadership or structural causes) and vice versa
59
Framing: Significance
* suggests the media does more than confirm our beliefs
* media can set the political agenda by focusing blame and salience of issues
60
Cheap Framing: Definition and Author
* when soft news media (entertainment news) portray foreign policy crises as human drama
* reduces the cognitive costs of paying attention to the news
61
Cheap Framing: Example
* Baum - testing if soft news increases respondents attention to 3 foreign policy crisis
* results: soft news effect is substantial
* those who do not watch hard news and have less education were greater effected by soft news influence
62
Cheap Framing: Significance
* increases the size of the attentive public
* democratizes foreign policy and provides an avenue for formal actors to address the public
