Can presidents hope to be effective in policy making when
Congress is ruled by the other party? Political scientist Richard S.
Conley brings to this crucial discussion a fresh perspective. He
argues persuasively that the conditions of "divided government"
have changed in recent years, and he applies a rigorous
methodology that allows the testing of a number of important
assumptions about party control of the legislative process and the
role of the president.
	
    Conley demonstrates that recent administrations have faced a
very different playing field than those in the earlier postwar years
because of such critical developments in electoral politics as
decreasing presidential coattails and the lack of presidential popularity
in opposition members' districts. Moreover, he identifies several
changes in the institutional setting in Congress that have affected
both the legislative success rates of presidents' programs and the
strategies presidents pursue. These institutional factors include
more assertive legislative majorities, changes in leadership
structure, and increased party cohesion in voting.

    Conley uses both case studies and sophisticated time-series
regression analyses to examine the floor success of presidential
initiatives, the strategies presidents use in working with the
legislature, and the use of veto power to achieve presidential aims.

    Scholars of the presidency and those interested in the larger
American political process will find in this book both food for
thought and a model of analytic sophistication.

_________________________________________________________

RICHARD S. CONLEY is an assistant professor of political
science at the University of Florida. He lives in Melrose, Florida.


The Presidency and Leadership, A Joseph V. Hughes, Jr., and
Holly O. Hughes Book


What people are saying about this book

“Conley deftly combines quantitative analysis with a keen and 
detailed sense of the strategic challenges different presidents 
faced. The Presidency, Congress and Divided Government 
should reinvigorate and redirect the literature on Congress and 
presidents.”—Perspectives on Politics

“. . . an important piece of scholarship on a central topic of
contemporary American politics.”—Bruce I. Oppenheimer,
Vanderbilt University

“Conley . . . selects an important issue: the near-permanence of
divided government in the national government for the past two
decades and its dominance ever since 1946. Although split-party
control has not produced policy deadlock or gridlock, neither has
its impact on presidential leadership and the retention of
congressional prerogatives been adequately explored and
analyzed.”—Lou Fisher