Foreign Policy in a Presidential Democracy

Abstract

In view of the very different kinds of democracy, very different levels of presidential authority, and very different kinds of foreign policy decision making in this world, it would be presumptuous to attempt to generalize about foreign policy making in any and all presidential democracies. Instead I am speaking here exclusively about making foreign policy in America's presidential democracy. Presidential and parliamentary democracies - which work best? To me the parliamentary system appears to work best in smaller, less diverse countries than the United States - countries where both the public and the politicians are familiar with the history and practice of parliamentary rule, where the states are creatures of the national government, where centralized national parties can discipline errant legislators, and where senior civil servants can largely govern the ministries. None of these conditions is likely to prevail in the United States. I have that the power to bring the executive branch down with a legislative vote of no confidence would produce anything but utter confusion in this country. I have question that requiring the president to appear before a televised session of the House for questioning on, for example, his tax proposal would be far less valuable than the Ways and Means Committee grilling the secretary