Testing a dynamic process of policy making in civil rights

Abstract

Presidential influence is examined at successive stages of the civil rights policy process. The sequential nature of the policy process implies a temporal component. We find support for short term linkages and the existence of institutional constraint over and above the impact of individual presidents. Longer term, year to year, linkages prove less important. For civil rights, then, the policy process is predominantly a short term phenomenon in which presidential discretion and independence are constrained by institutional factors. The president's ability to respond to external factors is part of presidential influence in the civil rights policy process.