The "Two Presidencies" in Future Research: Moving Beyond Roll-Call Analysis

Abstract

The two presidencies literature ostensibly seeks to determine whether presidents exercise more power over foreign policy than over domestic policy. In a laudable effort to be rigorous, scholars have sought to answer the question by examining roll-call voting in Congress. Doing so, however, changes the question from the power of the president versus Congress to the success of the president in Congress. Because presidents act without the approval of Congress far more often on foreign policy than they do on domestic policy, the two questions are not identical. Even with the narrower question of presidential success in Congress, several methodological problems cast doubt on the validity of previous studies. Future research needs to confront the problems plaguing roll-call analysis, and it needs to revisit the original question of how presidential influence varies across policy domains.