Headcounts, Expectations, and Presidential Coalitions in Congress

Bibliographic Data

ID6231798
AuthorsTerry Sullivan (corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume32
Issue3
Pages567
Publication date1988-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2111237
OpenAlexW2318017651
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited14

This paper examines presidential influence in Congress. Three questions are answered: Do members change their positions? Is the administration successful at building coalitions? Are members converted by administration influence? In answering these three questions, a new set of data that identifies the positions of members during coalition building is introduced and a baseline model of members' preferences is utilized. With the baseline model, the positions of members are predicted. A distinction is made between those members who could be expected to change their positions in the normal course of events and those members who are true converts. Critical members are also identified along with members who probably are acting strategically. Although the nature of this investigation is exploratory, the results support several conjectures. First, there is substantial change during the legislative process. Second, they suggest that the legislative successes of the Johnson administration depended heavily upon its large core of initial support. And third, the data suggest that the Johnson administration actually did build coalitions by converting hard-core opponents. Two measures of how much conversion took place are proposed

Administration (probate law · Baseline (sea · Core (optical fiber · Data science · Exploratory analysis · Exploratory research · Legislature · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Process (computing · Public relations · Set (abstract data type · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Game Theory and Voting Systems · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration

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