Overview

The cornerstone of the public presidency is the ability of the White House to influence, shape, and even manipulate public opinion. Ultimately, although much has been written about presidential leadership of opinion, we are still left with many questions pertaining to the success of presidential opinion leadership efforts throughout the modern presidency. What is still missing is a systematic, sequential approach to describe empirical trends in presidential leadership of public opinion in order to expand on important scholarly queries, to resolve empirical disputes in the literature, and to check the accuracy of conventional political wisdom on how, when, and under what conditions presidents lead public opinion. In """"The Provisional Pulpit"""", Brandon Rottinghaus develops a simple theory of presidential leadership, arguing that presidential messages are more likely to be received if there are fewer countervailing agents or messages to contradict the president's message. He concludes, based upon the findings presented in this book, that the 'bully pulpit' is largely provisional for modern presidents. The more the president can avoid the political echo chamber associated with partisan battles or communications, the better the chance the president has to lead public opinion. """"The Provisional Pulpit"""" adds an important layer of understanding to the issue of how and under what conditions presidents lead public opinion. All modern presidents clearly attempt to lead public opinion; often, due to factors outside their control, they fail. This book is an exploration into how and when they succeed.

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9781603441872

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Recent research has described how broadly difficult it is for presidents to lead public opinion and thereby push through government policy changes they seek. Marshalling a comprehensive set of data and reporting new archival evidence, The Provisional Pulpit is an impressive piece of scholarship, that shows more precisely than previous work--in percentage point terms--how strikingly limited presidents are in their efforts to gain further public support for their specific proposals. Presidents and their advisors need to be reminded of the difficulties they will encounter if they try to do too much (especially during their first year in office), if they do not devote sustained attention around the country to the most important issues on their agenda, if they neglect to use opportunities for major national televised addresses, and if they do not do all of this while the president is still sufficiently popular. In these respects, The Provisional Pulpit is a major contribution. --Robert Shapiro, department of political science, Columbia University<br><br><br><br>--Bob Shapiro

Author Information

BRANDON ROTTINGHAUS is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston. His primary research and teaching interests include the presidency, the media, public opinion, executive-legislative relations, and research methods.

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