Comparative Perspectives on Democratic Elites and Foreign Policy: Introduction
Author(s)
Lagon, Mark P.
Abstract
Elites are self-evidently less important determinants of policy outcomes in democracies than in nondemocracies. Yet, students of pluralistic polities who discount the role of networks of specialists and opinion shapers inside and outside of government do so at their peril. It seems that in democracies elites play a heightened role as determinants of outcomes in the area of foreign policy. Arguably, comparisons between different democracies–indeed different types of democracies–should yield some lessons as to why that is the case.
