Justifying Presidential Decisions: The Scope of Veto Messages

Abstract

The presidential veto is a highly visible and effective form of elite decision making. We measure the scope of the president's explanation of his use of the veto by the number of distinct justifications articulated and the length of his veto messages. Together these indicators tap variation in presidential opposition to legislation, unavailable from other sources. We examine the relationships of a variety of indicators of personal, political, behavioral, and policy content factors with the justifications presidents provide for their veto decisions. Personal factors are found to be most important in explaining the scope of the veto message. The scope of the veto message appears to involve energy, responsiveness to issues and interests, and experience in using the veto process. Our model explains considerably more of the variance in veto message length than in number of veto justifications. Thus, the two variables cannot be treated as surrogates for one another. While personal characteristics play a role in presidential decision making, the veto decision appears largely dependent on the individual bill, perhaps because of the dominance of congressional control over the content of legislation. Elite decisionmaking, while having a personal element, appears less independent and more responsive to situational factors than many analysts assert.