The Domestic Politics of Foreign Policy

Abstract

This panel examines the impact of national institutions and domestic political dynamics on the process and content of foreign policy. It calls for innovative and original theory-guided papers that explore the impact of coalitions, domestic opposition, as well as competition and conflict within and between different branches of government on a country’s foreign policy decision-making process and foreign policy behaviour. Questions to be addressed include: Do coalition governments pursue more peaceful, or rather more aggressive, foreign policies when compared to singly-party cabinets? What is the role of political opposition in foreign policy? Under what conditions is the executive immune from domestic opposition, and when has the latter the greatest impact on foreign policy? How do different configurations of the foreign policy executive affect the making of foreign policy? What are the scope conditions for bureaucratic politics to impede a sound foreign policy decision-making process? Do intra-governmental decision-making routines have a discernable impact on foreign policy, and if so when are they most likely to make a difference? Under what conditions do parliaments, which are usually perceived as having little significant impact on foreign policy, become crucial foreign policy players that even challenge the executive’s foreign policy decisions? What is the impact of party politics and of government-opposition dynamics on a country’s foreign policy? Finally, representing one of the least explored issues, what is the role of the judiciary in foreign policy? As regards methods, the panel espouses a pluralist perspective and welcomes papers of any methodological orientation.

Title	Details
Lebanese Domestic Policy between Internal Fragmentation and External Interference: Old Dynamics and New Trends	View Paper Details
Different Coalitions, Different Foreign Policies? The Organisation of Foreign Policy Decision Making in Coalition Governments	View Paper Details
Framing anarchy: a framework to analyze foreign-policy based on interactions among state, market, and civil society	View Paper Details
Foreign policy and domestic consensus making: the case of the Netherlands	View Paper Details
“To Balance or not to Balance” as Conceptualized Through Differing Lenses of the Past: A Study of the Danish Decision to Join NATO in 1949	View Paper Details
Brazil in the regional and international system: a theoretical approach	View Paper Details
Democracy Unpacked: A Fuzzy-Set Analysis of Institutions, Partisanship, and War Participation	View Paper Details
Ever the Twain Shall Meet: German Reunification and Its Ramifications for Foreign Policy Analysis and International Theory	View Paper Details
International Socialisation Processes v. Israeli National Role Conceptions: Can Role Theory Integrate IR Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis?	View Paper Details