Congressional Partisanship and Presidential Success: The Case of the Clinton and Bush Presidencies
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9256.00071 |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Author | Douglas W. Jaenicke |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CongressionalCongressional
Partisanship andPartisanship and
Presidential Success: ThePresidential Success: The
Case of the Clinton andCase of the Clinton and
Bush PresidenciesBush Presidencies
Douglas W. Jaenicke
Recent scholarship has documented the
increased cohesion and in¯uence of the con-
gressional parties. In this new context, the
status of the government as either uni®ed or
divided should function as an independent
variable in determining presidential success
rates. Occurring in just such a period, the
Bush and Clinton presidencies can be used to
test whether presidential success rates vary
according to whether the national govern-
ment is uni®ed or divided. All the relevant
data and comparisons con®rm the hypothesis.
In addition, a comparison of the presidential
success rates for Carter and Nixon's ®rst four
years indicate that in the preceding period of
less cohesive congressional parties there was
a much weaker relationship between pre-
sidential success and the status of govern-
ment as either uni®ed or divided.
Students of the United States Congress gen-
erally agree that in the 1980s and 1990s the
congressional Democratic and Republican
parties became much more cohesive and
important. Through the 1970s, committees,
their chairmen/women and their sub-
committees were the dominant institutional
features of the post-war Congress, and the
congressional parties were marginalized
(Foley and Owens 1996; Owens 1997). In
addition, the cohesion of the post-war con-
gressional parties was generally low through
the 1970s; then, the cohesion of and the
polarization between the congressional par-
ties in both chambers began to increase
(Congressional Quarterly 1996, p. 3461; Carr
1996; Cover et al. 1997; Rohde 1991; Owens
1997; Smith 1993, pp. 264±5, p. 268; Taylor
1996). Both congressional parties have
become more ideologically homogeneous as
both have lost their respective anomalous
wings±liberal and moderate Republicans (Rae
1991) and conservative southern Democrats.
This increased ideological homogeneity was a
necessary condition for the party leadership
becoming more actively involved in legislation
(Rohde 1991; Sinclair 1993). As they became
more cohesive and more polarized, the con-
gressional parties and their leaders in the late
1980s began to erode the independence of
Politics (1998) 18(3) pp. 141±149
#Political Studies Association 1998. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 141
Douglas W. Jaenicke, University of Manchester.
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