blogging

PM's latest post, "Nobody cares about foreign policy" (note to self: we need a style manual to resolve whether, for example, post titles should be capitalized), was prompted by a proseminar we both attended on Monday.

At this proseminar, the always-interesting and invariably thoughtful Elizabeth Saunders presented part of her book project: a paper entitled "The Electoral Disconnection in US Foreign Policy."

Among other things, Saunders argues that theories of "democratic international relations" -- particularly those surrounding audience costs -- need to incorporate a central insight from the last fifty years of American politics research: that most voters are "low information"* when it comes to many things political--and especially international affairs.** It follows, therefore, that elites who provide "cues" to the voting public in general, partisans, ethnic groups, etc. often operate as key intermediaries in the relationship between foreign policy and electoral pressures.

You should definitely read the paper, but that isn't the point of this post.

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