Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T14:47:42.737Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

George W. Bush, the Republican Party, and the “New” American Party System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2007

Sidney M. Milkis  and
Jesse H. Rhodes
Sidney M. Milkis
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, E-mail: [email protected]
Jesse H. Rhodes
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars have long expressed concern that the ascendance of the modern presidency since the New Deal and World War II, by hastening the decline of political parties and fostering the expansion of the administrative state, portended an era of chronically low public engagement and voter turnout and an increasingly fractious and impotent national politics. Presidents' inattentiveness to the demands of party-building and grassroots mobilization, coupled with their willingness to govern through administration, were seen as key obstacles to the revitalization of a politics based in widespread political interest and collective responsibility for public policy. This article argues that George W. Bush's potent combination of party leadership and executive administration, foreshadowed by Ronald Reagan's earlier efforts, suggests the emergence of a new presidential leadership synthesis and a “new” party system. This new synthesis does not promise a return to pre-modern party politics; rather, it indicates a rearticulation of the relationship between the presidency and the party system. The erosion of old old-style partisan politics allowed for a more national and issue-based party system to develop, forging new links between presidents and parties. As the 2006 elections reveal, however, it remains to be seen whether such parties, which are inextricably linked to executive-centered politics and governance, can perform the critical function of moderating presidential ambition and mobilizing public support for party principles and policies.Sidney M. Milkis is Professors of Politics ([email protected]) and Jesse H. Rhodes is a doctoral student ([email protected]) at the University of Virginia. The authors would like to thank the anonymous readers who reviewed the manuscript for their thoughtful and constructive comments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 461 - 488
Copyright
© 2007 American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberbach, Joel. 2004. The state of the contemporary American Presidency: or, Is Bush II actually Ronald Reagan's heir? In The George W. Bush Presidency: Appraisals and Prospects, ed. Colin Campbell and Bert A. Rockman. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Abramowitz, Alan I., and Walter J. Stone. 2005. “The Bush Effect: Polarization, Turnout, and Activism in the 2004 Presidential Election.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, September 1–4.
Adams, Rebecca. 2001. “GOP, Businesses Rewrite the Regulatory Playbook.” CQ Weekly, May 5. 990.
Adams, Rebecca. 2002. “Georgia Republicans Energized by ‘Friend to Friend’ Campaigns.” CQ Weekly, November 9, 2892.
Adams, Rebecca. 2003. “Regulating the Rule-Makers: John Graham at OIRA.” CQ Weekly, February 23, 520.
Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Aldrich, John H. 1999. Political parties in a critical era. American Politics Research 27 (1): 9–32.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H., and David W. Rohde. 2001. The logic of conditional party government: Revisiting the electoral connection. In Congress Reconsidered 7th ed. Ed. Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
Arnold, Peri. 1989. Making the Managerial Presidency. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Atkeson, Lonna Rae, Nancy Carrillo, and Mekoce Walker. 2005. The 2004 New Mexico U.S. Presidential Race. In Dancing without Partners: How Candidates, Parties, and Interest Groups Interact in the New Campaign Finance Environment ed. David B. Magelby, J. Quin Monson, and Kelly D. Patterson. Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University.
Bai, Matt. 2004a. “The Multilevel Marketing of the President.” New York Times Magazine, April 25, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/magazine/25GROUNDWAR.html?ex=1398225600&en=07c8203349fbd15a&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND.
Bai, Matt. 2004b. “Wiring the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.” New York Times Magazine. July 25. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/magazine/25DEMOCRATS.html?ex=1248494400&en=13ada638bbe542f0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt.
Barnes, Fred. 2007. “Master of the Senate; Mitch McConnell Runs Rings around Harry Reid.” Weekly Standard, February 19.
Bartels, Larry M. 2000. Partisanship and voting behavior 1952–1996. American Journal of Political Science 44 (1): 35–50.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2005. Homer gets a tax cut: Inequality and public policy in the American mind. Perspectives on Politics 3 (1): 15–31.Google Scholar
Beachler, Donald. 2004. Ordinary events and extraordinary times: The 2002 Congressional elections. In Transformed by Crisis: The Presidency of George W. Bush and American Politics, ed. Jon Kraus, Kevin J. McMahon, and David M. Rankin. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Beck, Paul A. 1988. Incomplete realignment: The Reagan legacy for parties and elections. In The Reagan Legacy: Promise and Performance, ed. Charles O. Jones. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
Beck, Paul A. 2003. A tale of two electorates: The changing American party coalitions, 1952–2000. In The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Parties, ed. John C. Green and Rick Farmer. 4th ed., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Benda, Peter M., and Charles H. Levine. 1988. Reagan and the bureaucracy: The bequest, the promise, and the legacy. In The Reagan Legacy: Promise and Performance, ed. Charles O. Jones. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
Berman, Larry. 1990. Looking back on the Reagan presidency. In Looking Back on the Reagan Presidency, ed. Larry Berman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Berman, William. 1998. America's Right Turn: From Nixon to Clinton. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bibby, John F. 1998. Party organizations, 1946–1996. In Partisan Approaches to Post-War American Politics, ed. Byron E. Shafer. New York: Chatham House Publishers.
Bibby, John F. 2002. State party organizations: Strengthened and adapting to candidate-centered politics and nationalization. In The Parties Respond: Changes in American Parties and Campaigns, ed. L. Sandy Maisel. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Bimes, Terri. 2002. Ronald Reagan and the New Conservative Populism. Institute of Governmental Studies. Paper WP2002-1. http://repositories.cdlib.org/igs/WP2002-1
Bimes, Terri, and Stephen Skowronek. 1996. Woodrow Wilson's critique of popular leadership: Reassessing the modern-traditional divide in presidential history. Polity 29 (1): 27–63.Google Scholar
Black, Merle. 2004. The transformation of the southern Democratic Party. Journal of Politics 66 (4): 1001–17.Google Scholar
Brennan, Mary C. 1995. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the G.O.P. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Burnham, Walter Dean. 1985. The 1984 election and the future of American politics. In Election 84: Landslide without a Mandate? ed. Ellis Sandoz and Cecil V. Crabb, Jr. New York: New American Library.
Busch, Andrew E. 2001. Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Freedom. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Busch, Andrew E. 2005a. National security and the midterm elections of 2002. In Transforming the American Polity: The Presidency of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism, ed. Richard S. Conley. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.
Busch, Andrew E. 2005b. Reagan's Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
Bush, George W. 1999a. Duty of Hope. Indianapolis, Indiana. July 22, at www.georgewbush.com.
Bush, George W. 1999b. Remarks. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. June 12.
Calabresi, Steven G., and Christopher S. Yoo. 1997. The removal power: The unitary executive during the first half-century. Case Western Reserve Law Review 47: 1451–561.Google Scholar
Calabresi, Steven G., and Christopher S. Yoo. 2003. The unitary executive during the second half-century. Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 26: 667–801.Google Scholar
Carlson, Allan. 2006. “Indentured Families; Social Conservatives and the GOP: Can This Marriage Be Saved?” Weekly Standard, March 27.
Carney, James, and John F. Dickerson. 2002. “W and the ‘Boy Genius.’” Time (online edition), November 9. www.Time.com.
Carpenter, Daniel P. 2001. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
CBS News. 2005. Poll: Bush Ratings Hit New Low. October 6, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/06/opinion/polls/main924485.shtml.
Ceaser, James W. 1979. Presidential Selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ceaser, James W., and Andrew E. Busch. 2005. Red over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Cochran, John. 2005. “A Government Out of Touch.” CQ Weekly Report, July 4.
Coleman, John J. 1996. Resurgent or just busy? Party organizations in contemporary America. In The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Parties, ed. John C. Green and Daniel M. Shea, 2d ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Conway, M. Margaret. 1983. Republican political party nationalization, campaign activities, and their implications for the party system. Publius 13 (1): 1–17.Google Scholar
Cook, Charlie. 2002. Cook Political Report National Overview: December 2002. The Cook Political Report. http://www.cookpolitical.com/overview/2002/december02.php.
Cook, Rhodes. 2003. Bush, the Democrats, and “Red” and “Blue” America. Rhodes Cook Newsletter, October. www.rhodescook.com.
Cook, Rhodes. 2004. “More Voters Are Steering Away from Party Labels.” Washington Post, June 27.
Cotter, Cornelius P., and John F. Bibby. 1980. Institutionalization of parties and the thesis of party decline. Political Science Quarterly 95 (1): 1–27.Google Scholar
Crew, Robert E., Terri Susan Fine, and Susan A. MacManus. 2005. The 2004 Florida U.S. presidential race. In Dancing without Partners: How Candidates, Parties, and Interest Groups Interact in the New Campaign Finance Environment, ed. David B. Magelby, J. Quin Monson, and Kelly D. Patterson. Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University.
Croly, Herbert D. 1914. The Promise of American Life. New York: MacMillan.
Cronin, Thomas E. 1985. The presidential election of 1984. In Election 84: Landslide without a Mandate? ed. Ellis Sandoz and Cecil V. Crabb, Jr. New York: New American Library.
Davidson, Roger H. 2001. Congressional parties, leaders, and committees: 1900, 2000, and beyond. In American Political Parties: Decline or Resurgence? ed. Jeffrey E. Cohen, Richard Fleisher, and Paul Kantor. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.
Derthick, Martha, and Steven Teles. 2003. Riding the third rail: Social Security reform. In The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies, ed. W. Elliot Brownlee and Hugh Davis Graham. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
Druckman, James, Lawrence Jacobs, and Eric Ostermeier. 2004. Candidate strategies to prime issues and image. Journal of Politics 66 (4): 1180–202.Google Scholar
Edsall, Thomas. 2005. “Soros-Backed Activist Group Disbands as Interest Fades.” Washington Post, August 3.
Edwards, George C. 2007. Governing by Campaigning: The Politics of the Bush Presidency. New York: Pearson-Longman.
Ehrenhalt, Alan. 1986. “Failed Campaign Cost Republicans the Senate.” CQ Weekly, November 8. 2803.
Eisinger, Robert. 2003. The Evolution of Presidential Polling. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fahrenkopf, Frank. 1992. Discussion. Leadership in the Reagan Presidency, ed. Kenneth W. Thompson. Lanham, MD: Madison Books.
Faler, Brian. 2005. “Election Turnout in 2004 Was Highest since 1968.” Washington Post, January 15.
Feldman, Linda. 2005. “A Move to Push Republicans to the Middle.” Christian Science Monitor, January 31.
Fisher, Louis. 2004a. The way we go to war: The Iraq resolution. In Considering the Bush Presidency, ed. Gary L. Gregg II and Mark J. Rozell. New York: Oxford.
Fisher, Louis. 2004b. The Bush military tribunal: Relying on the Nazi saboteur case. In George W. Bush: Evaluating the President at Midterm, ed. Bryan Hilliard, Tom Lansford, and Robert P. Watson. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Fisher, Louis. 2005. Challenges to civil liberties in a time of war. In Transforming the American Polity: The Presidency of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism, ed. Richard S. Conley. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.
Fleisher, Richard, and Jon R. Bond. 2001. Polarized politics: Does it matter? In Polarized Politics: Congress and the President in a Partisan Era, ed. Richard Fleisher and Jon R. Bond. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
Franke-Ruta, Garance, and Harold Meyerson. 2004. “The GOP Deploys: Campaign events masquerading as “official” visits.” The American Prospect, February.
Freedman, Paul. 2004. “The Gay Marriage Myth—Terrorism, Not Values, Drove Bush's Re-election.” Slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/210927#5.
Frymer, Paul. 1999. Uneasy Alliances. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Fusarelli, Lance D. 2005. Gubernatorial reactions to No Child Left Behind: Politics, pressure, and education reform. Peabody Journal of Education 80 (2): 120–36.Google Scholar
Galvin, Daniel. 2006. “Presidential Party Building in the United States.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University.
Galvin, Daniel, and Colleen Shogan. 2004. Presidential politicization and centralization across the modern-traditional divide. Polity 36 (April): 477–504.Google Scholar
Ginsberg, Benjamin, and Martin Shefter. 1990. The presidency, interest groups, and social forces: Creating a Republican coalition. In The Presidency and the Political System, ed. Michael Nelson and 3d edition. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.
Golden, Marissa Martino. 2000. What Motivates Bureaucrats? Politics and Administration during the Reagan Years. New York: Columbia University Press.
Goldstein, Amy, and Sarah Cohen. 2004. “Bush Forces a Shift in Regulatory Thrust: OSHA Made More Business-Friendly.” Washington Post, August 15.
Green, John C. 2004. The American Religious Landscape and Political Attitudes: A Baseline for 2004. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, September 10. http://www.pewtrusts.com/pdf/pew_religion_survey_091004.pdf.
Hacker, Jacob S., and Paul Pierson. 2005. Abandoning the middle: The Bush tax cuts and the limits of Democratic control. Perspectives on Politics 3 (1): 33–53.Google Scholar
Hadfield, Joe. 2005. The RNC Keeps on Rollin': The New Chairman's Plans to Grow the Vote for '08. Campaigns and Elections, April.
Halbfinger, David M. 2002. “Bush's Push, Eager Volunteers and Big Turnout Led to Georgia Sweep.” New York Times, November 10.
Hamby, Alonzo L. 1992. Liberalism and its Challengers: From F.D.R to Bush. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford.
Harris, Richard A., and Sidney M. Milkis. 1996. The Politics of Regulatory Change: A Tale of Two Agencies. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heclo, Hugh. 2003. Ronald Reagan and the American public philosophy. In The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies, ed. W. Elliot Brownlee and Hugh Davis Graham. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Herrnson, Paul S. 1986. Do parties make a difference? The role of party organizations in congressional elections. Journal of Politics 48 (3): 589–615.Google Scholar
Herrnson, Paul S. 1988. Party Campaigning in the 1980s. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Herrnson, Paul S. 2002. National party organizations at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In The Parties Respond: Changes in American Parties and Campaigns, ed. L. Sandy Maisel. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Herrnson, Paul S., and Irwin L. Morris, n.d. “Beyond Coattails: Presidential Campaign Visits and Congressional Elections.” Manuscript.
Hetherington, Marc J. 2001. Resurgent mass partisanship: The role of elite polarization. American Political Science Review 95 (3): 619–31.Google Scholar
Hilligus, Sunshine, and Todd Shields. n.d. “Moral Issues and Voter Decision Making in the 2004 Presidential Election.” Manuscript.
Howell, William G. 2003. Power without Persuasion: The Politics of Direct Presidential Action. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Howell, William G. 2005. Unilateral powers: A brief overview. Presidential Studies Quarterly 35 (3): 417–39.Google Scholar
Howell, William G., and David E. Lewis. 2002. Agencies by presidential design. Journal of Politics 64 (4): 1095–114.Google Scholar
Hult, Karen M. 2003. The Bush White House in comparative perspective. In The George W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment, ed. Fred I. Greenstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. 2005. Campaign for President: The Managers Look at 2004. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Melanie Burns. 2004. The second face of the public presidency: Presidential polling and the shift from policy to personality polling. Presidential Studies Quarterly 34 (3): 536–56.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Robert Y. Shapiro. 2000. Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jacobson, Gary C. 1985–1986. Party organization and distribution of campaign resources: Republicans and Democrats in 1982. Political Science Quarterly 100 (4): 603–25.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 2003. Terror, terrain, and turnout: Explaining the 2002 midterm elections. Political Science Quarterly 118 (1): 1–22.Google Scholar
Jalonick, Mary Clare. 2002. “Senate Changes Hands Again.” CQ Weekly, November 9.
Jones, Charles O. 2006. “The United States Congress and Chief Executive George W. Bush.” Presented at the Conference on Politics and Polarization: The George W. Bush Presidency, May 26–27, Oxford University.
Jones, Jeffrey. 2005. “Gallup Review: Party Support in 2004.” Gallup Poll, January 31: http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=14746.
Keele, Luke, Brian J. Fogarty, and James A. Stimson. n.d. “Presidential Campaigning in the 2002 Congressional Elections.” Manuscript.
Kelley, Christopher S. 2005. “Rethinking Presidential Power—The Unitary Executive and the George W. Bush Presidency.” Presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 7–10.
Klinghard, Daniel P. 2005. Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and the emergence of the president as party leader. Presidential Studies Quarterly 35 (4): 736–60.Google Scholar
Klinkner, Philip A. 1994. The Losing Parties: Out-Party National Committees 1956–1993. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Ladd, Everett Carl. 1985. On mandates, realignments, and the 1984 presidential election. Political Science Quarterly 100 (1): 1–25.Google Scholar
Leal, David L., Matt A. Barreto, Jongho Lee, and Rodolfo O. de la Garza. The Latino Vote in the 2004 Election. PSOnline (January 2005): 41–49. www.apsanet.org.
Levey, Noam M. 2007. “Iraq buildup draws new challenge.” Los Angeles Times, January 23, A08.
Lewis, Neil A., and Eric Schmitt. 2004. “Lawyers decided bans on torture didn't bind Bush.” New York Times, June 8.
Lim, Elvin T. 2002. Five trends in presidential rhetoric: An analysis of rhetoric from George Washington to Bill Clinton. Presidential Studies Quarterly 32 (2): 328–48.Google Scholar
Lowi, Theodore J. 1985. The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Magleby, David B., J. Quin Monson, and Kelly D. Patterson. 2005. Dancing without Partners: How Candidates, Parties, and Interest Groups Interact in the New Campaign Finance Environment. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Maisel, L. Sandy, and John F. Bibby. 2002. Election laws, court rulings, party rules and practices: Steps toward and away from a stronger party role. In Responsible Partisanship? The Evolution of American Political Parties Since 1950, ed. John C. Green and Paul S. Herrnson. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
Mann, Thomas E. 1990. Thinking about the Reagan years. In Looking Back on the Reagan Presidency, ed. Larry Berman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mansfield, Harvey C. 1987. The 1984 election: Entitlements versus opportunity. In The 1984 Elections and the Future of American Politics, ed. Peter W. Schramm and Dennis J. Mahoney. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Mayer, Kenneth. 2001. With the Stroke of a Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
McAuliffe, Michael. 2006. “It's Still Terror, Stupid: Strategy Has GOP Closing Gap in Races.” New York Daily News, August 24. 19.
McClatchy, Margaret T. 2007. “Dems regroup after Senate loss; Talk gets tougher as GOP blocks troop-surge debate.” Sacramento Bee, February 18, A1.
McCormick, James M. 2004. The foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration. In High Risk and Big Ambition: The Presidency of George W. Bush, ed. Steven E. Schier. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
McDonald, Michael P. 2005. Voter Turnout. United States Election Project. http://elections.gmu.edu/voter_turnout.htm.
McGirr, Lisa. 2001 Suburban Warriors. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
McMahon, Kevin J. 2004. Crisis and the pursuit of conservatism: Liberty, security, and the Bush Justice Department. In Transformed by Crisis: the Presidency of George W. Bush and American Politics, ed. Jon Kraus, Kevin J. McMahon, and David M. Rankin. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Milkis, Sidney M. 1993. The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the New Deal. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Milkis, Sidney M. 1999. Political Parties and Constitutional Government: Remaking American Democracy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Milkis, Sidney M. 2001. Bill Clinton and the politics of divided democracy. In Seeking the Center: Politics and Policymaking at the New Century ed. Martin A. Levin, Marc K. Landy, and Martin Shapiro. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Milkis, Sidney M. 2005. Executive power and political parties: The dilemmas of scale in American democracy. In Institutions of American Democracy: The Executive Branch, ed. Joel Aberbach and Mark Peterson. New York: Oxford University Press.
Milkis, Sidney M. 2006. The president and the parties. In The Presidency and the Political System, ed. Michael Nelson and 8th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Milkis, Sidney M., and Jerome Mileur. 2005. The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Milkis, Sidney M., and Michael Nelson. 2003. The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776–2002. 4th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Mitchell, Alison, and Adam Nagorney, 2002. “G.O.P. Gains from War Talk but Does Not Talk About It.” New York Times, September 21.
Mockabee, Stephen, Michael Margolis, Stephen Brooks, Rick D. Farmer, and John C. Green. 2005. The 2004 Ohio U.S. presidential race. In Dancing without Partners: How Candidates, Parties, and Interest Groups Interact in the New Campaign Finance Environment, ed. David B. Magelby, J. Quin Monson, and Kelly D. Patterson. Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, Brigham Young University.
Moe, Terry M., and William G. Howell. 1999. The presidential power of unilateral action. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 15 (1): 132–79.Google Scholar
Mucciaroni, Gary, and Paul Quirk. 2004. Deliberations of a ‘compassionate conservative’. In The George W. Bush Presidency: Appraisals and Prospects, ed. Colin Campbell and Bert A. Rockman. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Mufson, Stephen. 2005. “FDR's Deal in Bush's Terms.” Washington Post, February 20.
Muir, Jr., William K. 1988. Ronald Reagan: The primacy of rhetoric. In Leadership in the Modern Presidency, ed. Fred I. Greenstein. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nagourney, Adam. 2006. Democrats Turned War Into an Ally. Washington Post, November 9, A1.
Nagourney, Adam, and Jim Rutenberg. 2006. “As Vote Nears, Stances on War Set Off Sparks.” Washington Post, November 1, A1.
National Annenberg Election Survey. 2004. Bush 2004 Gains among Hispanics Strongest with Men, and in South and Northeast, Annenberg Data Show. www.naes04.org.
Nimmo, Dan. 2001. Political Persuaders: The Techniques of Modern Election Campaigns. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Norquist, Grover. 2001. “Just Say ‘Yes’: In the Tax Cuts, a Presidency Is at Stake.” American Spectator, May.
Orren, Karen, and Stephen Skowronek. 2004. The Search for American Political Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, Mark. 2004. Bush and interest groups: A government of chums. In The George W. Bush Presidency: Appraisals and Prospects, ed. Colin Campbell and Bert A. Rockman. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Pew Research Center. 2003. Evenly Divided and Increasingly Polarized: 2004 Political Landscape. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center for People and the Press.
Pew Research Center. 2006. Centrists Deliver for Democrats. November 8.
Polling Report. 2007. President Bush: Job Ratings. http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob1.htm.
Pomper, Gerald M. 1981. The Election of 1980: Reports and Interpretations. New York: Chatham House.
Pomper, Gerald M. 2003. Parliamentary government in the United States: A new regime for a new century? In The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Parties, ed. John C. Green and Rick Farmer, 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ragsdale, Lyn, and John J. Thies III. 1997. The institutionalization of the American presidency, 1924–92. American Journal of Political Science 41 (4): 1280–318.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Scott. 2004. The GOP Generation: A Special Report on the 2004 Election. Rasmussen Reports, December 10. www.rasmussenreports.com.
Reichley, A. James. 2000. The Life of the Parties: A History of American Political Parties. 2d ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Rohde, David W. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Post-Reform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1938–1950. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Samuel Rosenman. 13 vols. New York: Random House.
Rudalevige, Andrew. 2003. Presidential management and the politicized presidency: Reagan and centralization. In Reassessing the Reagan Presidency, ed. Richard S. Conley. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Rutenberg, Jim. 2006. “G.O.P. Draws Line in Border.” New York Times, May 26.
Sabato, Larry J. 1988. The Party's Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Sandalow, Marc. 2007. “Pelosi's Gambit Succeeds: House Rebukes Bush on Iraq.” San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, A1.
Sandoz, Ellis. 1985. Introduction: The Silent Majority finds its voice. In Election 84: Landslide without a Mandate? ed. Ellis Sandoz and Cecil V. Crabb, Jr. New York, NY: New American Library.
Scaife, Richard M. 1983. Ronald Reagan Talks to America. Old Greenwich, CT: Devin Adair.
Schaller, Michael. 2007. Right Turn: American Life in the Reagan-Bush Era 1980–1992. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Schier, Steven E. 2003. George W. Bush's presidential project and its prospects. The Forum 1 (4): Article 2. http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol1/iss4/art2.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Arthur. 1949. The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Schoenwald, Jonathan. 2001. A Time for Choosing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shea, Daniel M. 1999. The passing of realignment and the advent of the “base-less” party system. American Politics Quarterly 27:1 (January) 33–57.Google Scholar
Shea, Daniel M. 2003. Schattschneider's dismay: Strong parties and alienated voters. In The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Parties, ed. John C. Green, Rick Farmer, and 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Shefter, Martin. 2002. War, trade, and U.S. party politics. In Shaped by War and Trade, ed. Ira Katznelson and Martin Shefter. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sinclair, Barbara. 2002a. The dream fulfilled? Party development in congress, 1950–2000. In Responsible Partisanship? The Evolution of American Political Parties since 1950, ed. John C. Green and Paul S. Herrnson. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
Sinclair, Barbara. 2002b. Congressional parties and the policy process. In The Parties Respond: Changes in American Parties and Campaigns, ed. L. Sandy Maisel. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002.
Skocpol, Theda. 2004. A Bad Senior Moment: The GOP Wins This Medicare Fight. Now Democrats Must Keep Themselves (and Seniors) United. American Prospect, January.
Skowronek, Stephen. 1982. Building a New American State: the Expansion of National Administrative Capacities 1877–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skowronek, Stephen. 1997. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Skowronek, Stephen. 2005. Leadership by definition: First term reflections on George W. Bush's political stance. Perspectives on Politics 3 (4): 817–31.Google Scholar
Stockman, Farah. 2004. “Christian Lobbying Finds Success: Evangelicals Help to Steer Bush Efforts.” Boston Globe, October 14.
Sundquist, James L. 1983. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of the Political Parties in the United States. 2d ed. Washington, DC: Brookings.
Thomas, Evan, and Daniel Klaidman. 2006. “Full Speed Ahead.” Newsweek, January 9.
Thomas, Ralph, and Andrew Garber 2006. “Even in State Races, anti-Bush Mood Played Major Role.” Seattle Times, November 9.
Towle, Michael J. 2004. Out of Touch: The Presidency and Public Opinion. College Station: Texas A&M Press.
Troy, Gil. 2005. Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
“Trust in Government.” Gallup Poll. www.gallup.com/poll/topics.
Tulis, Jeffrey. 1987. The Rhetorical Presidency. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
United States General Accounting Office. 2003. Rulemaking: OMB's Role in Reviews of Agencies' Draft Rules and the Transparency of Those Reviews. Washington, DC: General Accounting Office. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03929.pdf.
VandeHei, Jim. 2005. “GOP Has Tilted Power to President.” Washington Post, May 26.
VandeHei, Jim, and Charles Babington. 2005a. “Bill's Passage Shows the Arena Where the GOP Can Flex Its Muscle.” Washington Post, July 31.
VandeHei, Jim, and Charles Babington. 2005b. “Newly Emboldened Congress Has Dogged Bush This Year.” Washington Post, December 23.
VandeHei, Jim, and Dan Balz. 2006. “Angry Campaigns End on an Angrier Note; Iraq War Remains Paramount Issue as Voters Go to Polls.” Washington Post, November 7, A1.
VandeHei, Jim, and Peter Barker. 2006. “Bush, GOP Congress Losing Core Supporters; Conservatives Point to Spending, Immigration.” Washington Post, May 11.
Wallsten, Peter. 2006. “GOP Leaders Are Hoping to Turn the War into a Winner.” Los Angeles Times, August 8, A13.
Warshaw, Shirley Anne. 2004. Mastering presidential government: Executive power and the Bush administration. In Transformed by Crisis: The Presidency of George W. Bush and American Politics, ed. Jon Kraus, Kevin J. McMahon, and David M. Rankin. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Wattenberg, Martin P. 1996. The Decline of American Political Parties 1952–1994. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Weisman, Jonathan. 2007. “Senators to Introduce Resolution Opposing Bush's Iraq Policy.” Washington Post, January 17, A04.
West, William F. 2005. The Institutionalization of Regulatory Review: Organizational Stability and Responsive Competence at OIRA. Presidential Studies Quarterly 35 (1): 76–93.Google Scholar
White, John Kenneth. 2005. “The Politics of Terrorism: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush Compared.” Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC, September 1–4.