Presidents at the Crossroads: US Foreign Policy Making with a Polarized Congress

• In Event: Unilateral Power and the Public Presidency

Abstract

Interbranch dynamics in foreign policy making reveal institutional tensions that are often at the forefront of debates on democratic backsliding in the US. Recent scholarship on this topic highlights that contemporary checks on executive power often come in the shape of legislative package deals. Under the impression of polarization, these omnibus bills often traverse a fine line between productive tension and stymieing obstruction. Scholars have identified the annual authorization process for National Defense funds as a stronghold of interbranch dynamics where bipartisanship is still possible and where interbranch friction reliably produces recurring laws. I argue that presidential engagement in this pivotal arena is at a crossroads because key democratic norms associated with the functioning of executive-legislative relations in a system of shared powers are challenged – chief among which are the ability to compromise and to accept undesired outcomes. I explore how presidents routinely use preemptive wholesale veto threats and assertive claims of broad constitutional authority to shape interbranch dynamics challenging both of these norms. My analysis uncovers evidence that a key driver of this trend is the political system’s propensity to enhance more extreme views in a polarized Congress. In effect, more provisions that presidents fundamentally oppose receive serious consideration as supermajoritarian rules and electoral incentives in Congress tend to disqualify compromises as weakness. Empirically, I explore the quantity and quality of threatened and exercised vetoes as well as signing statements pertaining to the National Defense Authorization Acts, 1985-2022, to identify the degree and content of interbranch tensions. This comprehensive and longitudinal perspective on a key arena of interbranch dynamics significantly advances our understanding of how the institutional forces that mandate friction gradually become systematic forces for obstructive tension that complicate checks-and-balances dynamics.

Author

• Jakob Wiedekind, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill