The White House and Congress on Child Care and Family Leave Policy: From Carter to Clinton

Over the last two decades four presidents produced a variety of family policy initiatives with mixed results. Carter issued his nine-point plan on the family and convened the first White House Conference on Families in American history. Reagan created the White House Working Group on the Family and issued Executive Order 12606, which established family impact statements. George Bush continued many of Reagan's policies and pushed family values to near the top of the political agenda by 1992, and Bill Clinton set forth his eight-point plan on the family and moved quickly to reverse many of the policies of the Reagan-Bush era. Discussed is the role of the White House and Congress in shaping two family policy initiatives in particular: The Child Care and Development Block Grant of 1990 and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.     

Contrasting Models of White House Staff Organization: The Eisenhower,Ford, and Carter Experiences

Analysts of the presidency agree that White House staffs may be organized along one of three lines: a competitive model, a hierarchical model, or a collegial model. This article details the interaction patterns of the Eisenhower, Ford, and Carter senior White House staffs in an empirical test of the basic assumptions of these models of staff organization. These three administrations represent very different conceptual approaches to the problem of staff interaction. The results of the analysis of private and group meeting access by the senior staff with the President clearly indicate that our models do not capture the full range of staff interaction and that other factors need to be given more serious consideration in our conceptualizations of the operation of the White House.     

Contesting France: French informants and American intelligence in the dawning Cold War

By integrating French archives and untapped US intelligence records, this article uncovers a debate within US government circles about the accuracy of the entrenched image of France at the onset of the Cold War as decadent and teetering toward revolution. In exchanges with the White House, State Department and military, right-leaning French sources bolstered this view. French contacts in the Resistance meanwhile shaped Office of Strategic Services analysis that France was a strong, worthy ally. France became a contested idea with warring factions in both capitals seeking to influence US policy – with repercussions for Franco-American relations for decades to come.     

George Bush and Executive Branch Domestic Policymaking Competence

This article critiques the George Bush domestic policymaking process and argues that Bush had the second-lowest level of policy competence among postwar presidents, ranking above only Ronald Reagan. Although not overtly antianalytic like Reagan, Bush gave little thought and effort to restoring the badly damaged executive branch domestic policymaking process. The article closes with suggestions about the steps needed for, and the difficulties in establishing, a strong White House policymaking process that generates fruitful interaction among key policy advocates over time and that establishes sufficient Executive Office of the President (EOP) capacity to monitor the implementation and management of presidential policies.     

George W. Bush's City on a Hill

This paper explores the various and sometimes contradictory meanings of the metaphor of A City on a Hill, with an emphasis on how such an investigation can contribute to an understanding of the foreign policy of George W. Bush, especially in terms of the War on Terrorism in general and the war in Iraq in particular. The strands within the metaphor include religious, political, economic, and technological dimensions which too often exacerbate the confusions about national self-image many Americans have about our role in the world and about what has been called the right-wing Wilsonianism of the Bush White House. Greater clarity about the role of this metaphor in our history might help in minimizing what can fittingly be called the law of unintended consequences.     

The Ulster Unionist Party and the U. S. Role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1994–2000

Since the beginning of the "Troubles," Ulster unionists generally have viewed American involvement in Northern Ireland as biased towards nationalists and "unwanted interference" in their internal affairs. Yet despite vehement condemnations, unionists made virtually no attempt to counteract Irish-American perceptions or to explain unionism to U. S. audiences. But from 1994 onwards, mainly in response to the expanding involvement of the Clinton administration in the peace process, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) launched a sustained effort to engage the White House and get its views across in America. While some of these UUP initiatives got nowhere, others achieved a considerable degree of success, particularly the effort to convey unionist perspectives to the heart of White House policymaking.     

Congressional Position Votes in the Truman Administration, 1947–52: A View from the White House

Scholars have routinely overlooked Harry Truman in analyses of presidential position votes in Congress. The principal data source for longitudinal studies of executive-legislative relations, Congressional Quarterly, did not regularly begin compiling presidential position votes until 1953. Yet position votes for the Truman administration do exist. Archival research at the Harry Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, revealed that the president commissioned his White House staff to undertake an analysis of position votes spanning the 80th, 81st, and 82nd Congresses (1947–52). This research note analyzes Truman's success rate on this set of domestic and foreign policy votes and provides details on the 83 House and 99 Senate position votes for future use by researchers.     

The Allocation of Excepted Political Positions: What and Whose Executive Priorities Do They Serve?

Abstract

Scholars have only begun to examine the roles played by non-career SES and Schedule C personnel in managing the bureaucracy. This, despite the fact that these individuals help to establish, communicate, and implement policy, and despite the broad discretion presidential administrations have in appointing them, defining their duties, and allocating their positions across the federal government. As an effort to redress this neglect, we first provide an overview of what lower-level political personnel do and of the processes and constraints that determine how they are distributed. We then examine how changes in presidential administration have affected the allocation of political SES and Schedule C positions across departments. Although dramatic infusions of these personnel into some agencies can be tied to policy objectives, they appear to be idiosyncratic and driven more by the preferences of agency leaders than by the White House. As such, they provide little support for positive theories that frame the administrative presidency in terms of centralized strategic planning.     

The Changing Roles of House Party Leadership Organizations: The House Republican Policy Committee

More than 100 members in each of the two House party caucuses participate in the parties’ formal organizations—the extended party leadership. What purposes do these institutional components of the parties serve, and how and why have they changed over the last three decades? This article begins to answer these questions through a case study of the Republican Policy Committee based on primary documents as well as quantitative analysis. I show that the Republican leadership has used the committee for participation, coordination, and communication functions within the Conference, but that the roles of the committee have changed substantially in response to strengthening party government conditions, GOP majority status, heightened competition for control of the House, and the individual goals of key Republican leaders. Among other changes, the committee became more important for coordinating policy positions and strategy during the 1980s, but the strong, centralized majority leadership in the 1990s diminished this important coordination function and left the committee with an emphasis on partisan communication.     

No passion for Brownlow: Models of staffing the presidency

Post‐Watergate critics of the American presidency have directed much attention to the problem of controlling the White House staff. This paper argues that their proposals have ignored an implicit lesson contained in the Brownlow Report of 1937 and that it is unrealistic to build the Cabinet and department secretaries into any model of white House staff functions, particularly as a constraint mechanism on the staff. Such proposals understate the political role of the staff and approaches to reform must search for a political rather than an institutional response.     

Oral History and the Gerald R. Ford White House: The Specter of Watergate

For the last sixty years, presidential libraries have providedand preserved critical source materials essential for the studyof the history of presidents of the United States. Oral historiesat those libraries have become an increasingly important partof their key archival collections, with one or two major exceptions.This article analyzes and compares official oral history collectionsat the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library with those of othertwentieth century presidents and seeks to explain why the oralhistories currently available for research there were so limiteduntil Mr. Ford's death in 2006. The reasons for this are anintriguing blend of developed White House policy, benign neglect,the role of tape recorders in bringing Ford to the Oval Office,and the continuing influence of the ghost of the Watergate scandaleven well beyond the years Gerald R. Ford occupied the nation'shighest political office.     

The political requisites of an open international economic system: United States balance of payments policies during the 1960s

This paper explores the political context of an increasingly familiar phenomenon: unilateral interference with international trade and payments. The particular case examined is that of US balance of payments policy between 1960 and 1971, during which time the country which had been the world's foremost advocate of an open world economy attempted to separate the US and international capital markets. The policy is explained at two levels: systemic political imperatives to explain the overall structure of policy choices, and domestic bureaucratic politics to explain the changing sources and objectives of policy. The Bretton Woods system linked US political power to the international monetary system in such a way as to leave the US no choices but those of capital export controls or the destruction of the entire system, as the US balance of payments moved into deficit. The domestic policy process reacting to these international strains followed a pattern of progressive politicisation, which lifted the issue out of the hands of the Treasury and into the White House. Finally, it is suggested that an examination of the political structures which led to restrictive policies in the monetary sphere may shed some light on the current trends toward protectionism in the trade area.     

The Pendulum of Congressional Power: Agenda Change,Partisanship and the Demise of the Post-World War II Foreign Policy Consensus

Many scholars contend that Congress rarely matters in the realm of foreign policy. The source of this collective impotence is often explained by the weaknesses in congressional institutions vis-a-vis the president, as well as a general inability to respond effectively to a dynamic international political environment. We contend that the debate over congressional activism has not adequately addressed the role of agenda change. We analyze all roll call votes in the House of Representatives relating to the international affairs agenda between 1953 and 1998. We find that presidents have become significantly more likely to stake out positions on economic and trade issues as compared to other international issues. We also observe that presidential positions in the realm of foreign policy are increasingly characterized by interparty and interinstitutional conflict. While this increased conflict has dramatically decreased the president's ability to successfully pass executive priorities in foreign affairs more generally, presidential success on economic and trade issues has witnessed a significantly greater decline. We infer from these results that changes to the foreign policy issue agenda represent one important factor that has affected not only the incentives for political parties to participate actively, but also the willingness of Congress to challenge the president in the foreign policy debate.Asked one day whether it was true that the navy yard in his district was too small to accommodate the latest battleships. Henry Stimson (chair of the House Naval Affairs Committee early in the century) replied, 'That is true, and that is the reason I have always been in favor of small ships.'1Carriers have been, are and will be for the foreseeable future an absolutely essential part of our deterrence force…2John Warner, senator from Virginia, home state of Newport News Shipbuilding     

Constructing Images,Constructing Policy: The case of Filipina migrant performing artists

In 1991 a Filipina performing artist died while working in Japan. Her death became an international incident and a catalyst for action on the issue of migrant exploitation. In particular, a series of policies was constructed by the Philippine Government in an attempt to afford protection to migrant workers. In this paper I critically examine the construction of these policies, with the purpose of identifying how specific notions of gender and sexuality are incorporated into the construction and reconstruction of policy. I demonstrate how the representation of exploitation within systems of labor migration serves the purposes of dominant factors of society, with little regard to the actual lived experiences of migrant workers. Findings indicate that current policy is based on an image that only illegally-deployed, hence immoral and disreputable women are exploited, overlooking the observation that both illegally- and legally-deployed women are susceptible to abuse. At one level this paper reflects an ontological attack against the employment of categories previously conceptualized as natural within the construction of migration policy. At a second level this paper is also concerned with the issue of 'who speaks for whom,' and the implications of this for viable protective policies. The significance of this paper extends beyond the confines of the Philippines, for it encompasses a growing international awareness of abuses toward migrants.     

Notes from the Book Review Editor

Democratic theory promises that the public influences elected officials, and thus policy. Since the Nixon administration, presidents have employed a public opinion apparatus in order to capture and employ public attitudes. Public opinion polls, by virtue of statistical certitude, appear both scientific and representative of the public. However, there is another tool in the public opinion arsenal, albeit an unrepresentative one. President George H. W. Bush's administration employed not only public opinion polls but also focus groups during his tenure. When challenging the use of polls, the media, elites and even scholars rarely condemn the practice as poorly representative of the public; focus groups, in contrast, are discussion sections of approximately 20 people considering questions of policy, rhetoric, and performance. Using archival documents, this article compares the use of focus groups with the traditional application of the polling apparatus during the Bush presidency. Despite the inherent consequences of employing such a narrowly representative tool, the Bush White House employed focus groups in much the same manner as the statistically driven polling apparatus.     

The White Paper on European Governance: Implications for Urban Policy

This paper discusses the recent European Commission White Paper on European Governance, arguing that the document offers interesting possibilities for the future development of the European Union (EU), how it is governed and more particularly for 'European Urban Policy'. However, the paper argues there are problems with its use of the term governance as a strategy for reform and with a number of its proposals to widen access to the European Commission (EC) and the policy process. With regard to urban policy it is suggested that the White Paper's emphasis on a greater role for sub-national government and citizens' is to be welcomed. Although once again it is unclear whether the Commission has fully thought through the implications of its proposals both for itself and the groups it wishes to engage with. More specifically it is argued that the Open Method of Coordination is broadly similar to the methods whereby both current urban (and spatial) policy have been developed and should be embraced. Overall the White Paper is something of a mixed bag; however, this is to be expected of a document which is primarily intended to stimulate discussion about the future of EU governance.     

Issue Salience and Bill Introduction in the House and Senate

I propose that many if not most bills introduced in the House and Senate represent electoral position taking on the part of members. Thousands of bills are introduced every year, only a fraction of which are passed into law, much less seriously considered in the chamber. Moreover, bills are very good position-taking devices in that they can appear to voters to be a credible step in the electoral process. I search for electoral motivations by examining the content of the bills members introduce. For five different policy areas, and in both the House and the Senate, I find strong correlations between indicators of issue salience in members’ districts and the number of bills the member introduces within the policy area. In addition, in the House the relationship between salience and bill introduction is strongest among vulnerable members, although in the Senate vulnerability does not influence the relationship.     

Contesting White Australia: Black Jazz Musicians in a White Man's Country

In March 1928, a tabloid-fuelled interracial sex scandal led to the deportation of an African American jazz orchestra and the introduction of a decades-long ban on black musicians. The incident raised questions about the place of cosmopolitanism within the White Australia experiment and calls into question the widely held assumption that the policy enjoyed unquestioned popular support in this period. By tracing the links between the individuals who championed the deportation, it is possible to identify divisions over the scope and meaning of the White Australia policy.     

‘A Sordid Tussle on the Strand’: Rhodesia House during the UDI Rebellion (1965–80)

Under the 1961 constitution, Rhodesia floated in a constitutional netherworld somewhere between a dominion and a colony. As Rhodesia's primary institutional link to the mother country, it was in the struggles over the status of their High Commission, Rhodesia House, that larger constitutional issues would be contested in microcosm. After UDI, Britain's awkward and unpopular policies towards the illegal regime in Africa were reflected in its policies regarding the London building and its occupants. The regime viewed Rhodesia House as a vital link to the outside world and sought to use it as a base from which to break out of its international isolation. The British shut down Rhodesia House in 1969, but its symbolic importance did not go away and it remained an important protest venue for demonstrators of all stripes. This article explores the significance of Rhodesia House during the fifteen-year rebellion and analyses what the controversies that swirled around the building say about the British imperial constitutional structure, the illegal regime's foreign policy goals and Britain's policy towards Rhodesia during this long and bizarre rebellion.     

The 1984 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Election Studies

This paper examines the role of leadership in the U.S. House in the context of arguments raised in Woodrow Wilson's Congressional Government. It begins with a discussion of the speakerships of Henry Clay and Thomas Reed as counterexamples to Wilson's generalizations (a model that links the degree of preference homogeneity among legislative followers to a leader's decision about whether to exert policy leadership is presented in an Appendix). Next we argue that preference homogeneity, leadership style and institutional structure form a kind of equilibrium, drawing on the history of the House for supporting evidence. Finally we discuss the application of our theory to House Democrats in the 1980s.