Presidential Mandates - How Elections Shape the National Agenda (Hardcover)

For more than 150 years, newly elected presidents have been claiming popular mandates, even though surveys show that voters are often uninformed about the issues. In this groundbreaking book, Patricia Conley argues that mandates should not be taken simply as statements of facts about voters' preferences. As political elites have always known, any inferences they make about election outcomes need to be understood in the context of political psychology and agenda-setting strategy. Presidents claim mandates, Conley shows, only when they believe they can mobilize voters and members of Congress to make a major policy change: the margin of victory, the voting behavior of specific groups, and the composition of Congress all affect their decisions. Drawing on election data since 1828 and presenting case studies from Truman to Clinton, she demonstrates that it is possible to accurately predict which presidents will ask for major policy changes at the start of their term and which will not. Ultimately, by illuminating the critical relationship between elections and policy-making, comely transforms out understanding of presidential mandates.