OUR FOREIGN POLICY
Kampelman, Max M.
Our Foreign Policy CONGRESS AND FOREIGN POLICY, by Robert A. Dahl. Har-court, Brace. 305 pp. $4. Reviewed by Max M. Kampelman THE 1950 elections have made this book appropriate and timely. For...
...The Congress, therefore, frequently found itself in the position of being faced with a fait accompli...
...If our democracy is to survive, we must find the key to the problems Dahl raises...
...With foreign policy made by the President and his State Department through speeches, executive agreements, and international conferences, responsible members of Congress have the choice of either accepting what is offered or assuming the risk of "upsetting the apple cart...
...We must search for further stimuli to help excite and educate people...
...both promised to keep the United States out of war by giving assistance to Great Britain and the Allies...
...Another characteristic of American foreign policy has been the placing of primary authority and responsibility in the President...
...This book does not provide us with complete answers, but it poses the right questions...
...It also presents some solutions in the right direction...
...What ]S important in a democracy is that differences of opinion must be settled by the majority...
...This "bi-partisan" approach to foreign policy seems wholesome to a great many Americans who frown upon politics as a necessary evil...
...Foreign policy is perhaps the most essential area of human life today...
...The need for broadening citizen participation and citizen understanding is clear...
...Dahl believes that for foreign policy to be democratically controlled it is necessary for the people to have a major voice and for the Congress to have a major responsibility in its formulation...
...The problem is a serious one...
...Vandenberg to be consulted by the President sounds sensible indeed to the intelligent American voter, who believes that when reasonable men get together to discuss a problem free of political influence, the best solution will be reached...
...For the past 10 years there has been a belief prevalent among responsible Americans that foreign policy must be kept out of politics...
...Prof...
...For Sen...
...We are faced today with an international crisis without full confidence that our foreign policy is based on public understanding...
...The author suggests party councils consisting of the leaders of both Houses of the Congress, the President with his administrative family, and party representatives...
...A closer relationship must be formed between the Executive and the Congress...
...In a large measure, we have sown the evil seeds of McCarthyism...
...Dahl is one of them...
...Members of Congress are today too busy and too involved with detail to give the time necessary for intelligent foreign policy decisions...
...A number of political scientists and students of democracy, however, have become concerned over the effect bi-partisanship has had on the functioning of democracy in the United States...
...In a sense, whether the Administration's foreign policy is correct or incorrect at any given time is immaterial to this analysis...
...To remove foreign policy from political debate is to remove the element of effective choice and thereby prevent the majority view from prevailing...
...The minority party has the responsibility for intelligent and constructive criticism...
...This was particularly true during the terms of President Roosevelt...
...Congress must be reorganized to become more effective, and Congressmen must obtain for themselves the necessary staff assistance...
...AH this leads Dahl to the conclusion that the need in American government is for greater party responsibility...
...Democracy is based on the practice of majority-rule, which in turn assumes that the electorate expresses its choice at the polls on major policies presented to it by opposing political parties...
...He is concerned with making the electorate and their representatives more intelligent about the issues of foreign policy...
...In 1944 Dewey seemed only to say that he could carry out the Roosevelt foreign policy better than Roosevelt himself...
...Political parties must stand for clearly defined programs, and once elected should be so organized in the Congress and in the Executive as to have the power to carry out their responsibility...
...In 1948, except for one slip when Dewey suggested a solution to the j problem of Italian colonies to attract the Italian vote, there was again no significant difference between the official foreign policy statements of the two parties...
...The issues are confused by irresponsibility, timidity, and lack of mutal confidence between the electorate and government officials...
...Irresponsible elements in the Congress and in the country have therefore usurped the field of foreign policy criticism with reckless charges, demagogic speeches, and sniping by withholding appropriations...
...If decision-making in this area is to be removed from democratic control, democracy has indeed suffered a body blow...
...The differences between Willkie and Roosevelt in 1940 were difficult to discern...
...Certain changes in government are also called for...
...Intelligent political discussion of foreign policy can help arouse citizen awareness and responsibility...
Vol. 15 • March 1951 • No. 3
