Who decides foreign policy? The role of national trauma in shaping the influence of public opinion in South Korea

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jahyun Chun
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
South Korea ◽  
National Trauma

Intervention and Intransitivity: Public Opinion, Social Choice, and the Use of Military Force Abroad

1995 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Taylor Gaubatz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Choice ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The Impact

This article argues that the problems identified in the literature on public choice should critically affect our research on public opinion and our understanding of the impact of public opinion on foreign policy. While a robust literature has emerged around social choice issues in political science, there has been remarkably little appreciation for these problems in the literature on public opinion in general and on public opinion and foreign policy in particular. The potential importance of social choice problems for understanding the nature and role of public opinion in foreign policy making is demonstrated through an examination of American public attitudes about military intervention abroad. In particular, drawing on several common descriptions of the underlying dimensionality of public attitudes on major foreign policy issues, it is shown that there may be important intransitivities in the ordering of public preferences at the aggregate level on policy choices such as those considered by American decision makers in the period leading up to the Gulf War. Without new approaches to public-opinion polling that take these problems into consideration, it will be difficult to make credible claims about the role of public opinion in theforeignpolicy process.

10. The role of media and public opinion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piers Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Persuasive Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The Media

This chapter examines the relevance of media and public opinion to our understanding of foreign policy and international politics. It first considers whether public opinion influences foreign policy formulation, as argued by the pluralist model, or whether the public are politically impotent, as argued by the elite model. It then explores whether the media can influence foreign policy formulation, as argued by the pluralist model, or whether the media are fundamentally subservient to the foreign policy process, as argued by the elite model. It also integrates these competing arguments with theoretical frames used in the study of international relations: namely, realism, liberalism, and critical approaches (including constructivism and post-structuralism). The chapter concludes by discussing contemporary debates concerning organized persuasive communication and the ‘war on terror’.

scholarly journals Testing Theories of the Determinants of An Individual Foreign Policy Preferences in Georgia

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angguntari C. Sari
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
The People ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
The Individual

<p><em><strong>Abstract</strong><br /></em></p><p><em>Public opinion has an impact on states’ foreign policy. In the case of Georgia, the pro-Russian or pro-United States attitude among the people is determined by several factors. The strategic value of Georgia for these two most powerful states in the world makes their study of the mass opinion’s preferences toward major power an interesting and a valuable one. In this article, I test two sets of factors that shape the individual preferences toward major powers, and employ logistic regression model to explain the relationship between four independent variables with the dependent variable. I argue that religiosity, role of government, and economic satisfaction are still the best predictors of the pro-Russian policy. </em></p><p><em><strong>Key words</strong>: Georgia, public opinion, Russia, United States, logistic regression</em></p><p><em></em><strong><em>Abstrak</em></strong></p><p><em>Kebijakan luar negeri suatu negara dipengaruhi oleh pendapat para masyarakatnya. Pertanyaannya adalah apa yang mempengaruhi pandangan masyarakat mengenai kebijakan yang selayaknya diambil oleh pemerintah? Artikel ini meneliti faktor-faktor yang dapat mempengaruhi pandangan masyarakat di Georgia mengenai rekan ideal bagi negara mereka. Georgia sendiri merupakan negara yang memiliki nilai strategis bagi negara besar seperti Rusia dan Amerika. Oleh karenanya, kajian mengenai determinan opini publik mengenai siapa diantara kedua negara besar tersebut yang layak menjadi mitra Georgia penting untuk dilakukan. Melalui metode kuantitatif, khususnya pendekatan regresi logistik, artikel ini berusaha melanjutkan penelitian yang terdahulu. Penelitian sebelumnya melihat korelasi antara faktor agama, peran pemerintah, dan kepuasan ekonomi dengan pilihan masyarakat terhadap mitra kerjasama luar negeri Georgia. Satu hal yang luput dari penelitian sebelumnya adalah peran nilai politik. Berdasar analisa melalui model regresi logistik, faktor agama, peran pemerintah, dan kepuasan ekonomi masih menjadi faktor penentu utama pilihan masyarakat Georgia mengenai siapa diantara Amerika dan Rusia yang dianggap ideal menjadi mitra hubungan bilateral negara mereka.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>Kata kunci</em></strong><em>: georgia; opini publik; rusia; amerika; regresi logistik.</em></p><p><em><br /></em></p>

11. Media and US foreign policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piers Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Power Projection ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the academic debates over the relationship between US public opinion, media, and foreign policy. It first considers the nature of US media and public opinion, including democratic expectations of mass media and public opinion, before discussing pluralist and elite approaches to understanding the links between media, public opinion, and foreign policy. It then explores the role of propaganda and persuasion with respect to US power projection, with particular emphasis on the ways in which public opinion and media can be understood as a source of power for — and as a constraint upon — US foreign policy. It also reviews contemporary debates regarding the impact of technological developments, such as the emergence of global media like the internet and social media, upon US power and influence.

Britain's Foreign Alliances in the Eighteenth Century

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Black
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
British Foreign Policy

One of the greatest problems in the discussion of eighteenth-century British foreign policy concerns the assessment of the influence of the particular character of the British political system. British foreign policy, and thus the country's alliance strategy, was conditioned by the subtle interplay of internal processes, the functioning of her domestic political system, and the international situation. As historians are concerned increasingly to probe the nature of the domestic pressures influencing the formulation and execution of policy, so it becomes more important to define the political, as opposed to constitutional, role of Parliament and public opinion. This is of obvious significance for the study of Britain's relations with her allies. Were these made more difficult as a consequence of the distinctive character of the British political system? There was no shortage of contemporaries willing to state that this was the case. An obvious category of discussion concerned the citing of domestic pressure as a reason why concessions could not be made to foreign powers, both allies and those whose alliance was sought. This was of particular significance when ministries explained why gains made during war could not be surrendered at peace treaties and gains made at the peace could not be yielded subsequently. Their defense of the retention of Gibraltar was based on this argument. Similar arguments were used by British ministers in seeking to persuade allies to do as they wished. Diplomatic pressure on France over the state of Dunkirk or on Spain and Portugal over commercial disputes made frequent use of the argument of domestic pressure.

scholarly journals Public Opinion as an Instrument of Socio-Cultural Influence in the Debate on the «NATO Option» in Finland

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-171
Author(s):  
N. Yu. Vezhlivtseva
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
State Government ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Finnish Population ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
Auxiliary Role

The article analyzes how the attitude of the Finnish population to Finland’s policy of military non-alignment correlates with the official foreign strategy. The question of public opinion can act as a possible sociocultural tool for its change is examined. The author explains the main reasons for the formation of stable public opinion in favor of neutrality, based on national and cultural identity. The role of public opinion in the Finnish internal debate on the «NATO option» is shown. The thesis that public opinion plays only an auxiliary role in comparison with external circumstances affecting the foreign policy of Finland, which is widespread in research circles, is considered. The author argues that public opinion on Finland’s possible entry into NATO is crucial in two key ways. First, at present, it’s a factor supporting the stable foreign policy decision, which is carried out by the state government. Secondly, in the future, public opinion may become a factor capable, under certain conditions of having a significant impact on the change of the Finnish course in foreign and security policy. The second option assumes that public opinion can play its own role by changing the pre-planned foreign policy scenario.

Chinese Public Opinion and the Interest Frontiers

2021 ◽  
pp. 144-169
Author(s):  
Andrea Ghiselli
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The Media ◽  
Chinese Public ◽  
Western Democracies

Although it is not as decisive a factor as it is in Western democracies, the space for Chinese public opinion to influence foreign policy has grown over the years thanks to the population’s greater access to the Internet, the diversification of the media, and the simple fact that today’s Chinese leaders are not revolutionary heroes. While domestic public opinion cannot shape the country’s foreign policy on issues related to China’s “core interests”—the commanding role of the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty—the situation is different when the discussion is less sensitive. The Chinese approach to North Africa and the Middle East is one of those topics. Hence, this chapter looks at how online Chinese public opinion influenced the domestic narrative on protecting the country’s overseas interests. It exposes a contested environment where the actions and the narrative put forward by policymakers were often under pressure as Chinese citizens favored a more muscular approach to defending the country’s overseas interests.

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