The Lengthened Shadow of Another Institution? Ideal Point Estimates for the Executive Branch and Congress

While the president's relationship to Congress has been carefully studied, the broader executive branch has received far less attention in that context. Scholars rely on assumptions about the relationship between the president and cabinet departments that remain untested. We construct the first statistical portrait of executive branch ideology by estimating ideal points for members of Congress, presidents, and the heads of cabinet-level departments between 1991 and 2004 in a Bayesian framework. We empirically assess claims about the composition of the president's administrative team and the influence of institutions on the ideology of principal executive decision makers. We also test an important claim regarding the trade-off between ideological congruence and budgetary authority to demonstrate the utility of our estimates for other scholars. Our analysis reveals a new picture of the executive branch as ideologically diverse, casting into doubt some essential assumptions in a substantial body of work on the separation of powers.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [The Lengthened Shadow of Another Institution? Ideal Point Estimates for the Executive Branch and Congress. American Journal of Political Science 55, 4 p767-781 (2011)], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00527.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/self-archiving.html#3.

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Work Title The Lengthened Shadow of Another Institution? Ideal Point Estimates for the Executive Branch and Congress
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Anthony M. Bertelli
  2. Christian R. Grose
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. American Journal of Political Science
Publication Date July 5, 2011
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00527.x
Deposited November 07, 2023

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  • Added SSRN-id1818182-1.pdf
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  • Added Creator Christian R. Grose
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    • 2011-07-01
    • 2011-07-05
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