A Review of “The Presidential Pardon Power”

James E. Anderson and Jared E. Hazelton, Managing Macroeconomic Policy: The Johnson Presidency. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1986. Pp. 285; $27.50.

Kathleen J. Turner, Lyndon Johnson's Dual War: Vietnam and the Press. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. Pp. 385; $25.00 hardbound; $9.95 softbound.

Daniel C. Hallin, The "Uncensored War": The Media and Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Pp. 285; $24.95.     

A Review of “Congressional Parties,Institutional Ambition,and the Financing of Majority Control”

Abstract

Presidential libraries hold a bounty of archival records, which is why National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests constitute a vital data source. However, standard protocols impose an inferential dilemma: researchers get the released sample without much information about the broader population, making it impossible to appraise the former relative to the latter. Drawing on a large FOIA request (and successful appeal) from the George W. Bush Presidential Library, this study affords such a test. Results show NARA archivists typically withheld outwardly unimportant records—e.g., weekends, holidays, and other uneventful days—though “response set” may have occasionally affected their redact-or-withhold decisions. After demonstrating how even seemingly innocuous omissions can bias estimates of presidential behavior, the study concludes with practical advice for researchers submitting FOIA requests to presidential libraries.