I am the Clinton Rossiter Professor in American Institutions at Cornell University. My research interests include presidential and congressional politics, separation of powers dynamics, and military policymaking. My current research focuses on the role of public opinion as a constraint on presidential unilateral power. My most recent book, with Dino Christenson, The Myth of the Imperial Presidency: How Public Opinion Checks the Unilateral Executive (Chicago 2020) examines the role of public opinion as a constraint on presidential unilateral power. Prior to this, I published a pair of books on inter-branch politics. The first, with Eric Schickler, Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power (Princeton 2016; winner of the 2017 Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize and winner of the 2017 Richard E. Neustadt Award), examines Congress’ ability to retain some check on the aggrandizement of presidential power through the investigatory arm of its committees. The second, with Andrew Reeves, The Particularistic President: Executive Branch Politics and Political Inequality (Cambridge 2015; winner of the 2016 Richard E. Neustadt Award), explores how electoral, partisan, and coalitional incentives compel presidents to target federal resources disproportionately toward some parts of the country and away from others. My first two books focused on domestic politics and American military policymaking. After the Rubicon: Congress, Presidents, and the Politics of Waging War (Chicago 2010; winner of the 2013 D.B. Hardeman Award) uncovered the informal mechanisms through which Congress substantially influences the initiation, conduct and duration of major American military actions, even when it fails to legislatively compel the president to alter his preferred policy course. My first book, with Francis Shen, The Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Military Inequalities (Oxford 2010), documented the emergence of socioeconomic inequalities in who bears the human costs of war and the ramifications of these inequalities for politics and policymaking.
Clinton Rossiter Professor in American Institutions