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Перевод

 

Political theorists have long disagreed about the public's ideal role in shaping pol­icy. Two general models of political representation capture this schism in demo­cratic governance. The delegate model holds that elected officials should reflect the general public's preferences on a given issue, making decisions based on the major­ity view. In short, officials should act as they believe their "constituents should want" (Pitkin 1967, 147) and not allow their personal preferences to enter into the equation. Abraham Lincoln expressed this view to the House of Representa­tives in July 1848, when he declared as the "primary, the cardinal, the one great living principle of all democratic representative government—the principle that the representative is bound to carry out the known will of his constituents."

 

By contrast, the trustee model provides for greater freedom of thought and maneuver by elected officials than the delegate model. This more conservative view is most often associated with Edmund Burke, the eighteenth-century British statesman and political theorist who did not consider the mass public qualified to make informed judgments about public policy. Burke, living in an era of wide­spread illiteracy and ignorance, argued that representatives should follow their own, more "enlightened" beliefs about what is best for the body politic. He believed that "your representative owes you not his industry only, but his judg­ment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion" (quoted in Hofman and Levack 1949, 115).

 

This historic debate about the role of political leadership in democratic gover­nance is directly related to the two primary bodies of international relations theory, realism and liberalism (see Chapter 3). Recall that realists have a pessimistic view of world politics and the prospects for peaceful cooperation. They base this pessimism, in part, on a bleak assessment of human nature, which they believe to be plagued by momentary passions, ignorance, and hostility toward others. For this reason, realists cast a skeptical eye on public opinion as a reliable guide to foreign policy. "The gov­ernment is the leader of public opinion, not its slave," observed Hans Morgenthau (1967, 547-548), a prominent realist and proponent of the trustee model. "Espe­cially when foreign policy is conducted under conditions of democratic control and is inspired by the crusading zeal of a political religion, statesmen are always tempted to sacrifice the requirements of good foreign policy to the applause of the masses."

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     Realists believe citizens may be competent to participate in matters of local governance, such as education, that touch their day-to-day lives, but that most are not competent to do so in foreign policy matters, which are more removed from daily life, as well as generally more complex, than local issues. Furthermore, for­eign policy makers rely on classified information that, by necessity, gives them a more informed view about the problems being faced and alternative solutions. The need for quick, decisive action also works against a strong public role in the foreign policy process.

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     Liberal theories of world politics provide a more positive view of the pub­lic's role in foreign policy. During the Enlightenment era, liberal European theo­rists such as Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau had great confidence in the reason and judgment of the mass public, whose views of foreign as well as domestic affairs, they believed, should be followed closely by elected leaders. In modern times, Woodrow Wilson is the president most closely associated with the liberal view and its application to U.S. foreign policy. In a Sep­tember 1918 speech entitled "America's Purpose," Wilson argued that private cit­izens rather than political leaders had the stronger grasp of the war's true meaning:

     It is the peculiarity of this great war that, while statesmen have seemed to cast about for definitions of their purpose and have sometimes seemed to shift their ground and their point of view, the thought of the mass of men, whom statesmen are supposed to instruct and lead, has grown more and more unclouded, more and more certain of what it is they are fighting for. National purposes have fallen more and more into the background; and the common purpose of enlightened mankind has taken their place...That is why I have said that this is a people's war, not a statesman's.

     This debate over the public's role in the governance of democracies contin­ues today. In going to war against Iraq in 2003, President George W. Bush acted contrary to public opinion polls opposing military action in the absence of wide­spread support from U.S. allies and the UN Security Council. His rationale—that decisive leadership is required that may not always be popular—placed Bush squarely in the trustee camp. For those favoring the delegate model, the problems that subsequently plagued the U.S. occupation of Iraq reinforced their position that the "general will" of American citizens must be heard and heeded.

Notes, key terms and bibliography:

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delegate model, p. 204

trustee model, p. 204

 

 

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