A Strategic Model of Presidential Targeted Appeals

• In Event: Poster Session: Presidents and Executive Politics & Public Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Presidents and Executive Politics

Abstract

This paper builds upon the two-stage model of presidential public appeals introduced
by Canes-Wrone (2001) by introducing an additional capacity to make targeted appeals to a president’s core supporters which increases the salience of targeted issues among his party’s primary electorate. As these core supporters are relatively extreme and also more influential in primary elections than in general election contests, the model demonstrates that the president is able to increase his policy utility in several cases thanks to legislative anticipation of targeted appeals, but it is of limited use in periods of divided government.

Author

• Jonathan D. Klingler, University of Mississippi