Wrapup

1
Wrap-up

• Last time Presidentialism vs. Parliamentarism
• Today overview of the course
• Next time review session for mondays exam

2
Presidentialism vs Parliamentarism

• What is the better way to organize a
  representative democracy?
• presidentialism chief executive not elected by
  legislators, and terms of office for both are
  fixed
• parliamentarism everything else, although
  emphasis on legislative selection/retention of
  the chief executive (e.g., prime minister) and
  endogenous terms of office
• Where does legitimacy lie? Can it be divided?
• How responsive is the political system?
• Can holders identify responsibility for outcomes?
• How tolerant is the system of policy disagreement?

3
Mainwaring and Shugart

• how much initiative power does the president
  have?
• how internally cohesive are legislative parties?
• how many effective parties are represented?

4
Overview Traditional Presidency

• nominations dominated by party elites
• patronage (distributive benefits) used to seal
  deals
• elections dominated by state/local party
  organizations
• national communications were expensive, slow,
  dominated by partisan newspapers
• marketing of candidates? Heroic types easiest to
  sell
• Few delegated responsibilities
• chief clerk on a short leash with limited
  outreach capacity
• congress tended to delegate to cabinet ministers,
  who were often key faction leaders
• small standing army
• communications technology limited going public

5
Overview the transition

• Size of federal govt grows dramatically with
  major wars
• new role for prez with 1921 Budget Act
• advent of radio in the 1920s dramatically
  increases the potential reach of politicians
  going public
• Great Depression crisis plus WWII change public
  view of prez
• Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934 large
  standing armies Wagner Act

6
Overview the modern prez

• The national government now is a major player in
  the U.S. economy and is the international
  military superpower
• Presidential ability to communicate to a mass
  audience directly via TV, radio
• Growing perception of division of labor between
  prez and congress
• Voters hold the president personally accountable
  for macro-economic outcomes (growth, inflation,
  unemployment)
• Voters hold the president personally accountable
  for national security

7
Overview Learning and Persuasion

• Most people exhibit little encyclopedic knowledge
  of politics
• low-information rationality and learning from
  signals
• on-line processing
• Experimental evidence on priming and framing
• Who is most affected by news coverage?
• Effects of competing sources?

8
Overview Presidents and legislation

• Veto power
• asymmetric strategic effects
• package veto bargaining before an audience
• Shaping the legislative agenda
• priming the public framing?
• tools for insider lobbying?
• entrepreneurial services to congress

9
Overview Presidents and Implementation

• Shaping bureaucratic behavior
• appointments singletons vs boards presidential
  discretion vs senate confirmation
• direct effects (shaping goals of bureaucrats) and
  
• indirect effects (selecting judges)
• monitoring and reporting requirements prezs
  budget oversight functions
• institutional checks executive orders central
  clearance of regulatory proposals