Theory: A presidency-augmented model of presidential-congressional relations is compared to the Congress-centered model as explanations of variation in presidential success roll call votes in the House. Hypotheses: (1) Presidents should win more votes concerning 'on agenda' bills and bills they support than off agenda bills or bills they oppose. (2) On agenda votes should receive more support from the president's congressional leaders than off agenda votes. (3) Compared to minority party presidents, a larger share of the bills which majority party presidents take positions should be on agenda and be bills they support. (4) Party support for the president should be higher when congressional leaders support the president than when the leaders are divided or oppose the president. Methods: Probit and difference of means tests of roll call voting data collected from Congressional Quarterly. Results: Models that take presidential actions into account explain variations in presidential success better than the more simple Congress-centered model.
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Covington et al. (1995) studied this question.
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