Congress and War Powers

This article focuses on war powers issues during the Clinton presidency to test the theory of nondecision-making as developed by Bachrach and Baratz (1970) and Lukes (1974). The first section clarifies key theoretical concepts (mobilization of bias and barrier I and barrier II nondecisions) and argues that war powers issues constitute "key issues" in Bachrach and Baratz's terms, thus permitting the formulation of falsifiable nondecision hypotheses. The second section presents four in-depth case studies of troop deployment conflicts from the Clinton administration: Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo. The third section analyzes the evidence from the four Clinton era cases, revealing a preponderance of nondecisions and essentially symbolic nonbinding resolutions (Edelman 1967; Hinckley 1994). The third section also identifies four mechanisms for deflecting challenges to the prevailing distribution of power (Bachrach and Baratz 1970, 44–48) and shows how all four were employed to deflect challenges to presidential primacy in the various Clinton cases. Following Oppenheimer (1974), the concluding section will offer an expanded vocabulary for classifying various forms of nondecision-making

Administration (probate law · Cold war · Computer security · Epistemology · Falsifiability · Key (lock · Law and economics · Physics · Political economy · Political science · Power (physics · Presidency · Presidential system · Section (typography · Sociology · Software deployment · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance

• Going to war democratically

  Peter E Mulherin•Australian Journal Of International…•2019

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• Power and Powerlessness

  John Gaventa•Power and Powerlessness•1982

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• The symbolic uses of politics

  Murray J Edelman•The symbolic uses of politics•1964

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• Less Than Meets the Eye

  Barbara Hinckley•Less Than Meets the Eye•1994

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• Power

  Open Access•Steven Lukes•Power•1974

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• Congress and the Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy

  James M Lindsay, James Lindsay et al.•Congress and the politics of U.S.…•1994

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• Power and poverty

  Morton S Baratz, Peter Bachrach•Power and poverty•1971

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• The Clinton Wars

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• After the Rubicon

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• Power and Its Two Faces Revisited

  Open Access•Peter Bachrach, Morton S Baratz•American Political Science Review•1975

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• The President’s Constitutional Authority to Use Limited Military Force

  Open Access•Phillip R Trimble•American Journal of International…•1995

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• Manufacturing consent

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• Presidents, Congress, and the Use of Force

  William G Howell, Jon C Pevehouse et al.•International Organization•2005

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• Nondecisions and Power

  Open Access•Geoffrey Debnam•American Political Science Review•1975

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• Two Faces of Power

  Open Access•Peter Bachrach, Morton S Baratz•American Political Science Review•1962

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• Nondecisions and the Study of Local Politics

  Open Access•Raymond E Wolfinger•American Political Science Review•1971

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• Decisions and Nondecisions

  Open Access•Peter Bachrach, Morton S Baratz•American Political Science Review•1963

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• On the Neo-Elitist Critique of Community Power

  Open Access•Richard M Merelman•American Political Science Review•1968

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