Challenging Executive Dominance

This book offers insights into how legislatures worldwide oversee foreign affairs, challenging the traditional view of executive dominance. Challenging Executive Dominance provides a fresh perspective.

The book explores the dynamics of how legislatures worldwide monitor and control their governments' actions in external relations. Challenging Executive Dominance brings together contributions from scholars across Europe and North America, providing a comprehensive examination of legislative engagement in foreign and security policy. The selected articles address a wide range of topics, including crisis management, military missions, arms trade, the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), international energy agreements, and trade negotiations.

Utilizing a principal-agent framework, Challenging Executive Dominance challenges the prevailing notion of 'executive autonomy' in foreign affairs. It illustrates how parliaments employ various ex ante and ex post mechanisms to oversee and regulate governmental actions in international matters. The book moves beyond the traditional view that politics halts at national borders, emphasizing the significance of party-political contestation in shaping parliamentary debates and decisions in this increasingly contentious arena.

By addressing the gap in research regarding parliamentary involvement in foreign affairs, particularly outside the U.S. Congress, this book contributes to theoretical advancements and enhances our understanding of legislative-executive relations. The chapters, initially published as a special issue in West European Politics, provide a rich foundation for ongoing discussions about the role of legislatures in global governance and their impact on national interests.