Prof. Douglas Kriner, author of "Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power," explains in this Washington Post op-ed how public opinion impacts the war powers of both the U.S. president and Congress.
He writes that despite the Constitution dividing war powers between the president and Congress, power has increasingly accrued to the presidency and that since 9/11, Congress would seem to be losing its battles over foreign policy.
"But it’s not that simple. Research finds that public opinion — which both shapes and is shaped by Congress’s reactions — can constrain what presidents want to do," writes Kriner, the Clinton Rossiter Professor in American Institutions in the Department of Government in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Read the entire Washington Post piece here.
