The President's Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Clinton

In this third edition of The President's Agenda, Paul Light brings his acclaimed study up to date by weighing the successes and failures of the Bush and Clinton presidencies in setting a legislative agenda of domestic issues for Congress. The most noticeable development, according to Light, is the shrinking of the agenda and the absence of fresh new ideas. Explaining the emergence of the derivative Presidency, he attributes this increasingly limited agenda to the problems associated with the end of the welfare state, the thickening of government, the problems of the budget, the Reagan effect, and the changing nature of party politics. With Light's latest judgments and insights, The President's Agenda remains an invaluable text for courses on the American presidency.

What has changed is the content of the President's agenda. Even under similar political conditions, both Bush and Clinton had fewer proposals than their predecessors, and both tended to favor modifications of the status quo over bold breaks with the past. Although there are important differences between the two Presidents, not the least of which is Bush's high proportion of small-scale, old ideas, the two share a pronounced tendency to look backward for inspiration rather than forward.--from the Preface

Author: Paul Light
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 01/22/1999
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.04w x 0.82d
ISBN: 9780801860669

About the Author

Paul Light is the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow and founding director of the Center for Public Service at the Brookings Institution. His books include Vice-Presidential Power: Advice and Influence in the White House, also available from Johns Hopkins.

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