Article
Publication Date
September 2012
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Presidential Studies Quarterly
Volume
42
Issue
3
Abstract
In this study, we examine the linkage between presidential policy proposal messages and legislative success. Employing a dataset on presidential legislative proposals that covers the years 1949-2010, we find that politics matters less than policy. Purely political messages that reference the electoral logic of mandates or appeal to a sense of bipartisanship appear to have no impact on presidential legislative success, nor does policy signaling, though highlighting the role of agency-based policy experts in crafting legislation does. From these results, we conclude that although the way presidents communicate their messages to Congress represents an important component of presidential-legislative relations, it is instead the perceived quality of the legislation that more strongly shapes congressional support of presidential policy efforts.
Included in
American Politics Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Administration Commons, Public Policy Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 1999-2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.03992.x/abstract