ABSTRACT
The role of the public in shaping American foreign policy elicits considerable debate among scholars and analysts about its importance and its impact. Indeed, two sharply different theoretical perspectives on this relationship have dominated academic and policy discussions over the past half century. One perspective assumes that the public is largely uninterested, ill informed, and subject to presidential leadership. In the strongest variant of this view, the public does not so much shape foreign policy, instead, it is largely shaped by it. The policy implication of this approach is that public opinion has a very limited role in shaping American foreign policy, and that the public largely adopts a “follower”mentality, mainly driven by the president and other key foreign policy officials. A second perspective starts from the premise that the public’s views are more structured and stable than suggested in the past. In this view, the public may not be fully conversant with all the details of foreign policy and may not have a sustained interest in foreign affairs, but their underlying attitudes and views are more consistent and predictive of policy positions than often contended. In the strongest variant of this view, the public can and do shape the direction of policy, even if they do not affect every decision. The policy implication of this approach is that public opinion plays a sustaining role in shaping American foreign policy and that policy-makers are constrained by the public’s view.1
