Democracy and War Making: Democratic Theory, Constitutionalism, and War Powers.

Recent work on the problem of the proper constitution of the war powers has narrowly focused on legal reforms to promote inter-branch dialogue on the use of military force. The 2008 National War Powers Commission Report is a primary example of this approach and this paper will highlight its limitations and uncover alternatives. Instead of legal reforms - which have failed in the past - what is needed is a view towards the political regime as a whole; one that looks to material rather than legal checks on the use of force. This democratic approach works to develop and maintain a mobilized citizenry that constrains and directs military policy by serving as a check on elites. This paper demarcates the outlines of a theory of democratic war powers through the application of a range of political and legal theory to the proposals of the Commission. A regime approach provides a means to reestablish democratic accountability for the use of force through the political constitution of a tension between the people and their nation's use of arms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]