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Exploring Citizen Assessments of Unilateral Executive Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Eileen Braman
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Abstract

This study investigates the interaction between constitutional considerations and democratic context in evaluations of executive authority. An identical experiment is conducted using undergraduate and Mechanical Turk samples. A hypothetical article raising the question of executive power varies the (1) issue context, (2) expert assessment of constitutional authority, and (3) level of public support for proposed action. Measures of participants’ issue preferences and level of satisfaction with President Obama are also included in the analysis. Results indicate that participants think differently about the desirability and legitimacy of proposed executive action. Constitutional considerations and satisfaction with the President weigh most heavily in assessments of the appropriateness of executive conduct. Differences observed across samples demonstrate that institutional rules have the potential to constrain the influence of political factors in assessments legitimacy, but this is not inevitably the case. Feelings about the President may be especially important where experts agree that he lacks authority to take action. This could indicate that citizens will rally behind presidents they like, and think more critically of those they do not, in times of constitutional crisis.

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Law & Society Review , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 189 - 223
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© 2016 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank James N. Druckman, John R. Hibbing, Brian Newman Mitchell Pickerill, Jeff Rachlinski, Bill Scheuerman, the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this research. Previous iterations of this work have been presented at the Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Conference (2014), the Faculty Colloquium series at Cornell University Law School, and the American Politics Workshop at Indiana University.

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