IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/intare/v16y2013i1p74-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The tactics of foreign policy agenda-setting: Issue choice and the president’s weekly radio address

Author

Listed:
  • James Meernik

    (University of North Texas, USA)

  • Michael Ault

    (California State University at Bakersfield, USA)

Abstract

The American president’s foreign policy agenda represents a complex mix of policy preferences driven both by necessity and choice. It would seem that, given the ability of other actors to substantially influence the nature of the president’s foreign policy agenda, and given the president’s own limited time, attention and expertise, the president’s ability to put issues on his foreign policy agenda would be fairly circumscribed. However, is this necessarily the case? In fact, we argue and show that presidents are able to manipulate the foreign policy agenda and make tactical choices regarding when to emphasize foreign policy issues in order to advance their policy preferences. We argue that presidents’ weekly radio addresses to the nation represent one such expression of presidential agenda-setting that scholars have largely neglected. It is our contention that presidents use these speeches to direct or redirect domestic attention away from some issues and toward others. We model the president’s foreign policy agenda, as expressed in the choice of issues selected for the weekly radio addresses, as a function of the president’s policy preferences regarding the US domestic political environment and the international environment and other key factors.

Suggested Citation

  • James Meernik & Michael Ault, 2013. "The tactics of foreign policy agenda-setting: Issue choice and the president’s weekly radio address," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 16(1), pages 74-88, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:16:y:2013:i:1:p:74-88
    DOI: 10.1177/2233865913478247
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2233865913478247
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2233865913478247?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ragsdale, Lyn, 1984. "The Politics of Presidential Speechmaking, 1949-1980," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(4), pages 971-984, December.
    2. Ostrom, Charles W. & Job, Brian L., 1986. "The President and the Political Use of Force," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(2), pages 541-566, June.
    3. Edwards, George C. & Wood, B. Dan, 1999. "Who Influences Whom? The President, Congress, and the Media," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 93(2), pages 327-344, June.
    4. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    5. Wood, B. Dan & Peake, Jeffrey S., 1998. "The Dynamics of Foreign Policy Agenda Setting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 92(1), pages 173-184, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hill, Joshua & Oliver, Willard M. & Marion, Nancy E., 2010. ""Shaping history" or "Riding the wave"?: President Bush's influence on the public opinion of terrorism, homeland security, & crime," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 896-902, September.
    2. B. Dan Wood, 2009. "Presidential Saber Rattling and the Economy," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(3), pages 695-709, July.
    3. Robin F. Marra & Charles W. Ostrom Jr. & Dennis M. Simon, 1990. "Foreign Policy and Presidential Popularity," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(4), pages 588-623, December.
    4. CHRISTOPHER SPRECHER & KARL DeROUEN Jr., 2002. "Israeli Military Actions and Internalization-externalization Processes," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(2), pages 244-259, April.
    5. James Meernik, 2011. "The Persistence of US Conflict Behavior: Continuity in the Use of Force," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 33-60, September.
    6. Riaño Rodríguez, Juan Felipe, 2014. "More than Words and Good Intentions: The Political Agenda-Setting Power Behind Foreign Aid Mechanisms," MPRA Paper 54826, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Philip Arena, 2008. "Success Breeds Success? War Outcomes, Domestic Opposition, and Elections," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 25(2), pages 136-151, April.
    8. James D. Morrow, 1991. "Electoral and Congressional Incentives and Arms Control," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(2), pages 245-265, June.
    9. William D. Baker & John R. Oneal, 2001. "Patriotism or Opinion Leadership?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 45(5), pages 661-687, October.
    10. Matthew A. Baum, 2004. "Going Private," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 48(5), pages 603-631, October.
    11. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 2002. "Political economics and public finance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1549-1659, Elsevier.
    12. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2008. "The Efficacy of Parochial Politics: Caste, Commitment, and Competence in Indian Local Governments," NBER Working Papers 14335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Burkhard Schipper & Hee Yeul Woo, 2012. "Political Awareness and Microtargeting of Voters in Electoral Competition," Working Papers 124, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    14. Marco Faravelli & Randall Walsh, 2011. "Smooth Politicians And Paternalistic Voters: A Theory Of Large Elections," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000250, David K. Levine.
    15. Eric Kaufmann & Henry Patterson, 2006. "Intra‐Party Support for the Good Friday Agreement in the Ulster Unionist Party," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(3), pages 509-532, October.
    16. Micael Castanheira, 2003. "Why Vote For Losers?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(5), pages 1207-1238, September.
    17. Mihir Bhattacharya, 2019. "Constitutionally consistent voting rules over single-peaked domains," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 52(2), pages 225-246, February.
    18. Sven Banisch & Eckehard Olbrich, 2021. "An Argument Communication Model of Polarization and Ideological Alignment," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 24(1), pages 1-1.
    19. Robbett, Andrea & Matthews, Peter Hans, 2018. "Partisan bias and expressive voting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 107-120.
    20. Peter Nijkamp & Marc van der Burch & Gabriella Vindigni, 2002. "A Comparative Institutional Evaluation of Public-Private Partnerships in Dutch Urban Land-use and Revitalisation Projects," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(10), pages 1865-1880, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:16:y:2013:i:1:p:74-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.hufs.ac.kr/user/hufsenglish/re_1.jsp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.