Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations

The first President Bush faced a long-entrenched Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. The first term Clinton entered into a unified government for the first time in many years, but all that changed in the midterm elections of 1994. The second President Bush faces a closely divided government whose balance could shift at any time. Through it all, the Presidential-Congressional rivalry continues unabated. What is it about the institutional relationship between Congress and the Presidency that ensures conflict even in the face of necessary cooperation? Here, well-known scholars and practitioners of Congressional-Presidential relations come together to explore both branches of government and what unites as well as divides them. Highlights include chapters on budgetary politics in a time of surplus, the impacts of campaign message and election mandates, and Congressional-Presidential relations during transitions. Case studies of budget battles, health care task forces, and armed conflicts in foreign lands lend concrete detail to political theory. First hand experience on the Hill and in the Oval Office—and everywhere in between—is reflected in each chapter. Although nothing can rival election 2000 for its challenges to both Congress and the Presidency, Rivals For Power shows how even an extraordinary electoral result is subject to the rules and rigors of Washington's built-in rivalry.