Skip to content
University of Maryland LibrariesDigital Repository at the University of Maryland
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   DRUM
    • Theses and Dissertations from UMD
    • UMD Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   DRUM
    • Theses and Dissertations from UMD
    • UMD Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Sovereigns or Servants - Presidential Relations with Congress in Domestic and Foreign Policy

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    umi-umd-4712.pdf (1.281Mb)
    No. of downloads: 1551

    Date
    2007-08-03
    Author
    Freund, Elizabeth Ann
    Advisor
    Morris, Irwin
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    This study analyzes how job approval of the presidency impacts presidents' legislative success in Congress. This dissertation examines the role of approval in presidential legislative success in both domestic and foreign policy areas. The first part of the research focuses on all the presidents from 1971-2004. They are compared using several different regression models which show the relationship between job approval and legislative success. Included are models for overall success as well as foreign and domestic policy success. Also important to these models is the use of both general and policy-specific job approval ratings in the analysis. The second part of the dissertation focuses on the first term of the George W. Bush presidency. It looks at his legislative successes and failures from 2001-2004 as well as his public approval during that time period. The impact of 9/11 and the war in Iraq are two key components of this section. Included here is both a discussion of the key points during Bush's first term as well as a quantitative analysis of legislative success. The research underscores two main ideas: that public approval can play a role in legislative success and that foreign and domestic policy success should be examined both individually and together for a complete understanding of presidential-congressional relations in both domestic and foreign policy. Analyzing presidential success in Congress reveals that at times approval does matter but that there are other key factors in determining success. This research also shows that while presidents may be more successful in one policy area than another, the factors which impact their success in foreign and domestic policy are different. The analysis of the Bush administration shows that the type of policy makes a difference in how successful the president is on this policy. Legislation dealing with terrorism was more successful for President Bush compared to legislation focusing on non-terrorism issues. Additionally, this study provides a framework for future analysis of presidential success in varying policy areas, including terrorism as well as domestic and foreign policy.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1903/7309
    Collections
    • Government & Politics Theses and Dissertations
    • UMD Theses and Dissertations

    DRUM is brought to you by the University of Maryland Libraries
    University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7011 (301)314-1328.
    Please send us your comments.
    Web Accessibility
     

     

    Browse

    All of DRUMCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister
    Pages
    About DRUMAbout Download Statistics

    DRUM is brought to you by the University of Maryland Libraries
    University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7011 (301)314-1328.
    Please send us your comments.
    Web Accessibility