The President's Legislative Policy Agenda, 1789–2002

Jeffrey E. Cohen asks why presidents send to Congress the legislative proposals that they do and what Congress does with those proposals from 1789 to 2002.

Jeffrey E. Cohen (Author)

9781107634978, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 September 2012

310 pages, 13 b/w illus. 20 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.42 kg

'There are remarkably few quantitative analyses of the presidency for a simple reason: from a statistical perspective there are too few presidents over too many years to allow most questions of interest to be addressed rigorously. A rare exception to this rule is Jeffrey E. Cohen's The President's Legislative Policy Agenda, 1789–2002. Cohen examines the legislative proposals that presidents have sent to Congress. This research topic lends itself to quantitative analysis, and the author provides a thorough study using appropriate econometric techniques … he provides an enlightening investigation of presidential behavior over the long sweep of the presidency's history.' Peverill Squire, The Journal of American History

Jeffrey E. Cohen asks why US presidents send to Congress the legislative proposals that they do and what Congress does with those proposals. His study covers nearly the entire history of the presidency, from 1789 to 2002. The long historical scope allows Cohen to engage competing perspectives on how the presidency has developed over time. He asks what accounts for the short- and long-term trends in presidential requests to Congress, what substantive policies and issues recommendations are concerned with, and what factors affect the presidential decision to submit a recommendation on a particular issue. The President's Legislative Policy Agenda, 1789–2002 argues that presidents often anticipate the Congressional reaction to their legislative proposals and modify their agendas accordingly.

Introduction. Two puzzles
1. The president's legislative policy agenda
2. Studying agenda building
3. A theory of presidential legislative policy agenda building
4. The size of the president's agenda
5. The substantive content of presidential agenda
6. Divided government and presidential policy moderation
7. From the White House to Capitol Hill: presidential agenda success in Congress
8. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Political structure & processes [JPH], Politics & government [JP]