In this dissertation, I examine the determinants of presidential responsiveness to
public opinion, employing a theory of context and venue that explains why presidents are
more responsive at some times and in certain policy making venues than at other times
and in other venues. To test this theory, I create a new direct measure of presidential
responsiveness to public opinion, a measure that quantifies the ideological distance
between presidential policy positions and public policy preferences. I develop versions
of this measure in four important venues of the modern presidency: relations with the
U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, the unilateral administrative presidency, and
the president’s rhetoric. Using time-series regression techniques, I analyze the influence
that factors such as political context, electoral context, institutional context, and venue
visibility have on the dynamics of presidential responsiveness scores. The results
indicate that although the president’s policy position taking responds to public opinion
dynamics, there is no clear contextual factor that conditions this responsiveness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2587 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Vaughn, Justin Scott |
| Contributors | Edwards, George C. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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