Mandate Politics

This 2006 work examines how elections get called mandates, how elected officials respond to these claims, and how public policy changes as a result.

Lawrence J. Grossback (Author), David A. M. Peterson (Author), James A. Stimson (Author)

9780521866545, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 August 2006

228 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

"This volume is thoroughly researched and methodologically creative, and it develops an interesting theory of political change. It should be of particular interest to congressional scholars and students of US electoral politics. Highly recommended."
Choice

Whether or not voters consciously use their votes to send messages about their preferences for public policy, the Washington community sometimes comes to believe that it has heard such a message. In this 2006 book the authors ask 'What then happens?' They focus on these perceived mandates - where they come from and how they alter the behaviors of members of Congress, the media, and voters. These events are rare. Only three elections in post-war America (1964, 1980 and 1994) were declared mandates by the media consensus. These declarations, however, had a profound if ephemeral impact on members of Congress. They altered the fundamental gridlock that prevents Congress from adopting major policy changes. The responses by members of Congress to these three elections are responsible for many of the defining policies of this era. Despite their infrequency, then, mandates are important to the face of public policy.

1. A single time in a single place
2. The evolution of mandates
3. Members of congress respond
4. The pattern of congressional response
5. Consequences
6. The irresistible meets the unmovable
7. Normal American politics.

Subject Areas: Elections & referenda [JPHF], Politics & government [JP], Media studies [JFD], Regional studies [GTB]