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How does the institutional design of a state's bureaucracy affect foreign policy? We argue that institutions can moderate bureaucrats' incentives to act in accordance with an Executive's diplomatic preferences. Where the Executive can influence budgets or career paths, bureaucrats face incentives to adopt her diplomatic goals as their own. Where agencies are shielded from Executive influence, bureaucrats are free to act independently in a bid to enhance their autonomy and their reputation for competence. To test these expectations, we develop a new measure of bureaucratic independence for the 15 aid-giving agencies in the US government. We analyze how independence affects foreign aid allocation patterns over the 1999-2010 period. We find that in 'dependent' agencies, foreign aid flows track the diplomatic objectives of the president. In 'independent' agencies, aid flows appear less responsive to presidential priorities and more responsive to indicators of need in the recipient country. Our results highlight limits on the diplomatic use of foreign aid and emphasize the importance of domestic institutional design. Our findings yield insight into a broad range of policy domains-including international finance, immigration, and the application of economic sanctions-where multiple government agencies are in charge of implementing foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article establishes that transitions of power from one presidential administration to the next can act as a source of uncertainty regarding whom citizens view as responsible for national conditions. I argue that citizens confront this ambiguity in a partisan manner when making responsibility attributions of credit and blame. Using the economy and the Iraq War as examples, ordinary partisans frequently ascribe responsibility using motivated reasoning by crediting the president of their own political party for perceived successes and blaming the president of the opposite party for perceived failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presidential management styles vary by each president, with consequences for the structures, processes, and outcomes of American foreign policymaking. Thus, understanding what the United States (U.S.) does in foreign policy in a given administration involves not only the international and domestic context and problems facing the U.S., but also the intersection of: 1) presidential style and personal preferences; 2) key stakeholders, structures and decision-making processes, and; 3) policy choices, which are shaped by the first two factors. However, while it is common to refer to a particular style for a particular president, in fact the same president may simultaneously employ very different styles, with very different policy consequences. This paper examines President Barack Obama's style, structures/processes, and policy outcomes in two policy areas: one in foreign economic policy (the 2008-2009 economic crisis) and one in national security policy (the 2009 Afghanistan "surge" decisions). We conclude that the two cases reveal two very different sets of decision-making dynamics under the same President at roughly the same time. Thus, presidents may have multiple styles, even within the same policy domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]