Legislating Together

Mark Peterson investigates how recent presidents have engaged Congress on domestic policy issues. Rejecting the presidency-centered perspective on national government that is so firmly rooted in the popular imagination, he argues in this sophisticated analysis that the response of Congress to presidential initiatives is often far more cooperative than the presidency-centered perspective suggests.

This may well be the best analysis extant of congressional–executive relationships in regard to legislation., Mark Peterson has undertaken a project that is rare in the field of presidential congressional relations. He has identified 5,069 presidential domestic policy proposals from Eisenhower to Reagan (through 1984) and sampled 299 for quantitative analysis. The project’s comprehensiveness sets Peterson’s work apart… Peterson has provided an extremely valuable study, for both the insights he has generated, and the role model he has created for others who study presidential–congressional relations., This book contributes positively to a new and improved understanding of presidential–congressional relations… [It] tackles a large topic and the author sensibly narrows it by concentrating on domestic policy and on the president’s legislative initiatives… [Legislating Together] deserves the attention it will receive as a contribution to better understanding of the interaction between the White House and Congress.

Mark A. Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles.