The electoral and policy context of divided government and presidential support in Congress: Nixon and Bush compared

This article develops a framework for understanding the contrasting legislative fortunes of Presidents Nixon and Bush under divided government by focusing on electoral contexts and policy areas. The theoretical premise of this research is that the electoral context of divided government sets the basic contours of presidential-congressional relations and is thereby critical in shaping presidents' ability to influence supporting coalitions in Congress in the domestic and foreign policy spheres. The analysis uses ordinary least squares regression of presidential support scores to identify how electoral, institutional and constituency factors variably bounded the ability of Nixon and Bush to gain support from Democrats for their policy stands, in turn contributing to their contrasting legislative success rates.