pp. 359-361
Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power, Douglas L. Kriner and Eric Schickler
Congress gets no respect. Scholars compete to condemn legislative inaction in the face of presidential expansionism, and for once the ivory tower is in tune with Main Street: public approval of the first branch was at 16 percent in a recent Gallup poll.
Not so fast, say Douglas L. Kriner and Eric Schickler, arguing that existing assessments of the balance of power between the branches has given “short shrift to congressional investigations” into executive branch malfeasance as a means of holding the presidency in check (p. 246). After all, even in a period of “seeming institutional dysfunction,” Congress can “investigate when it cannot legislate” (p. 3). In a nutshell, this book argues that investigations are not rare; they do lead to change; and they are partisan, but less so in the Senate.
The first congressional investigation was a 1791 inquiry into the disastrous St. Clair military expedition. That was also the first politicized congressional investigation: Jeffersonians used the occasion to attack leading Federalists, notably, Secretary of War Henry Knox. Over time, Kriner and Schickler show, investigations systematically lead to declining presidential approval ratings—about 2.5 percent for every 20 days of hearings in a month (p. 88).
But inflicting political damage is only one way in which i
To continue reading, see options above.
The Myth of Presidential Representation, B. Dan Wood Reviewed by Andrew Rudalevige
Presidents Creating the Presidency: Deeds Done in Words, Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Karlyn Kohrs Campbell Reviewed by Andrew Rudalevige
The America that Reagan Built, J. David Woodard Reviewed by Andrew Rudalevige
Presidents, Responsiveness, and Competence: Revisiting the "Golden Age" at the Bureau of the Budget, Matthew J. Dickinson and Andrew Rudalevige
Join the Academy of Political Science and automatically receive Political Science Quarterly.
Academy Forum | Latino Voters, Demographic Determinism, and the Myth of an Inevitable Democratic Party Majority
October 9, 2024
4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. ET
WEBINAR
Virtual Issue
Introduction: Black Power and the Civil Rights Agendas of Charles V. Hamilton
Marylena Mantas and Robert Y. Shapiro
Publishing since 1886, PSQ is the most widely read and accessible scholarly journal with distinguished contributors such as: Lisa Anderson, Robert A. Dahl, Samuel P. Huntington, Robert Jervis, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Theda Skocpol, Woodrow Wilson
view additional issuesArticles | Book reviews
The Academy of Political Science, promotes objective, scholarly analyses of political, social, and economic issues. Through its conferences and publications APS provides analysis and insight into both domestic and foreign policy issues.
With neither an ideological nor a partisan bias, PSQ looks at facts and analyzes data objectively to help readers understand what is really going on in national and world affairs.