Political scientists have tended to see the powerful presidency of the 20th and the 21st centuries as being the enemy of strong political parties. But over the past quarter century, presidents have been following a more partisan path. They have been relying on their parties more for support,...

Is there a presidential rhetoric of hard times? We are interested in presidents' rhetorical reactions during economic contractions. Do they rhetorically react at all? If they choose to speak, what do they seek to convey to the public about the economy? We analyze the major discretionary speeches...

Debate exists over whether presidents are sincere or strategic in submitting their legislative proposals to Congress and the implications of strategic versus sincere behavior on presidential success with Congress. This paper tests for strategic behavior in presidential proposing to Congress and...

After JFK's assassination in 1963, the Apollo program was virtually guaranteed a run at achieving success although its value was not as high as later mythology suggests. Lyndon Johnson cut the program's budget and vetoed a continuation in the form of the Post Apollo Applications Program, a...

Using statistical methods (e.g. Praise-Winsten regression with panel corrected standard errors and binary logistic regression) common hypotheses about party unity in parliamentarian and presidential regimes are tested. For this purpose I use an extensive compilation of data on party unity in...