“The President’s First Moves: The Politics of Agenda Construction in the Modern Era,” Jack Greenberg, Yale

AMERICAN POLITICS & PUBLIC POLICY WORKSHOP

Abstract: In my book-length dissertation project, I explore the range and political impact of presidential agency. I do so by examining how nine modern presidents determined their domestic political priorities at the beginning of their terms. Existing explanations of how presidents pick their legislative priorities center on external constraints. They contend that presidents anticipate which issues the public wants to see elevated, or which they can get through the legislature, and develop their domestic policy docket accordingly. I offer a different perspective: the construction of a president’s agenda is better understood as an act of self-assertion by which presidents leverage their agency to advance political projects of their own. Situating this practice within the broader political system, I recognize that presidents are not “free agents.” But rather than merely fitting their ambitions into preexisting parameters, I find that they consistently attempt to reconfigure politics to their own ends. Paradoxically, I find an inverse relationship between authority, measured by electoral margin of victory, and assertiveness. Presidents who come into office following a strong electoral performance appear to have more confidence in the security of their leadership and feel less obligation to “prove” that they are in charge. This variation, and the practice of self-assertion more broadly, mark presidential leadership as an inherently disruptive force in politics. The capacity to resolve those disruptions in a new governing arrangement is far more limited and contributes to the fundamentally unwieldy nature of presidential leadership. To provide an overview of my research, I will elaborate upon my argument in this talk with reference to four of my cases: the administrations of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Jack Greenberg is a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale University. He is chiefly interested in the U.S. presidency and political leadership. His dissertation research concerns “presidential prioritization,” the process by which presidents and their teams determine the domestic policy issues on which they will focus at the start of their administrations. In a companion project, he analyzes expectations of presidential self-restraint throughout American history. His research has received external support from the Bach Fellowship and the Scowcroft Institute at Texas A&M University. He is the graduate student representative on the executive council of the Presidents and Executive Politics section of the American Political Science Association and, from 2020-2022, he served as an editorial assistant for the American Political Science Review. At Yale, he directs the Dahl Research Scholars program at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, where he was also a Graduate Policy Fellow in 2022. Originally from New Haven, he returned to the Elm City after graduating from Williams College in 2018 with a degree in political science, history, and leadership studies. He was the first member of his family to attend college.

Open to the Yale community only.