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Legislative Productivity and Presidential Approval
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Legislative Productivity and Presidential Approval
Matthew G. Jarvis
## email not listed ##
Department of Political Science
University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
A large body of literature exists that examines the sensitivity of presidential
approval to characteristics of the political environment, such as the state of the economy, ‘rally around the flag’ events, and the nature of elite criticism of the president. While the effects of these variables on presidential approval are interesting, all of these characteristics of the political environment are largely out of the control of the president. Presidential job approval depends on many things that are not the president’s job, or at least outside of the president’s power. An interesting question, then, is whether or not presidential approval depends on the aspects political environment that the president can influence, such as the passage of major legislation.
Using hierarchical statistical techniques to accurately model a relationship
between different political contexts and individual opinions, this paper finds that presidential approval is quite sensitive to legislative productivity. Furthermore, the effects are not constant across people of different levels of education, and the relationships between presidential approval, legislative productivity and partisanship are sensitive to measurement issues. The findings suggest that people expect government to solve public problems through legislation and that the president is held responsible for doing so much more than Congress is.
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Portland, OR March 11-13.
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| | Authors: Jarvis, Matthew. |
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Legislative Productivity and Presidential Approval
Matthew G. Jarvis
Department of Political Science
University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
A large body of literature exists that examines the sensitivity of presidential
approval to characteristics of the political environment, such as the state of the economy,
‘rally around the flag’ events, and the nature of elite criticism of the president. While the
effects of these variables on presidential approval are interesting, all of these
characteristics of the political environment are largely out of the control of the president.
Presidential job approval depends on many things that are not the president’s job, or at
least outside of the president’s power. An interesting question, then, is whether or not
presidential approval depends on the aspects political environment that the president can
influence, such as the passage of major legislation.
Using hierarchical statistical techniques to accurately model a relationship
between different political contexts and individual opinions, this paper finds that
presidential approval is quite sensitive to legislative productivity. Furthermore, the
effects are not constant across people of different levels of education, and the
relationships between presidential approval, legislative productivity and partisanship are
sensitive to measurement issues. The findings suggest that people expect government to
solve public problems through legislation and that the president is held responsible for
doing so much more than Congress is.
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science
Association, Portland, OR March 11-13.
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