Perhaps the most important task that American citizens entrust to their elected officials is the decision to deploy the country's military forces in combat. But is the American public capable of holding their leaders accountable for the use of this authority? From a normative perspective, it is important that the public be capable of reaching reasoned and independent judgments about the wisdom of using military force if they are to carry out their role as citizens who guide policy in a democratic society. From an empirical perspective, numerous theories of the impact of democracy on the use of military force begin with the assumption that public opinion acts as an independent constraint on the behavior of democratic leaders in international politics. Can the public actually fulfill this role?
Recent scholarship on public opinion and war suggests that two key variables influence the public's willingness to support the use of force when American lives are at stake: perceptions of the justification of the military mission and perceptions of its likely success. Some have argued that this focus on the justification and success of a military mission provides evidence that the public can reach "reasonable" judgments about war that allow them to act as an independent constraint on their leaders. Others, however, have argued that such judgments appear to be "reasoned" but are largely derivative of statements made by partisan leaders. According to this view, the public's ability to constrain the use of force is inevitably limited by its dependence on partisan messages from elites.
This study uses survey experiments to explore potentially interactive relationships among conflicting cues and individual predispositions in shaping attitudes toward military conflicts. In particular, this research investigates the extent to which individuals can use media reporting to verify cues offered by political elites. The American public's ability to carry out this task is of great importance to those who seek to understand the formation of public opinion as well as the impact of democracy on foreign policy. It is also of great importance to American policy makers, the media, and the American public.
