GOTV Last time: –the politics of appointments –presidential role in budgeting Today: Get Out the Vote campaigning

Appointment politics singleton administrators and senate confirmation: if senators’ and presidents’ choices are driven only by policy preferences, they should always approve the president’s nominee and the president always chooses a nominee at his own ideal point –reversionary policy implementation is some mix of office stays vacant and president makes recess appointment. If we assume that office stays vacant implies a spatially extreme outcome, senators will always prefer the president’s ideal appointee. Recess appointment implies president’s ideal appointee, “so resistance is futile”, to quote the Borg

Appointments to panels majority-rule panels: odd numbers imply unique median; even numbers imply median interval if exiting member is not the s.q. median, the new median will be shifted in opposite direction of the exiting member. Median interval outlines the limits of how far a new prez. appointment can move policy –If pivotal senator and prez are on opposite sides of the new median, prez appointment is strongly constrained –If key senator and prez are favored by the median shift, prez is either partially constrained or unconstrained (and gets to move policy to his ideal pt) –if key senator and prez are hurt by the median shift, prez should be in a strategically strong position.

Models of budgeting Possible roles for prez include: –gate-keeper (negative agenda power); –proposer (positive agenda power); and –oversight agent (can affect the efficiency of policy implementation) Gatekeeper: (veto threats) –asymmetric effects Proposer: (positive agenda power) –Niskanen: exec. branch has hidden info about costs of policies, makes take-it-or-leave-it offers to Congress; Risk aversion and bias –Limitations on bias; sources of information first-mover advantage and distributive policies

Presidential budgeting Evolution of budgetary structures –pre-Budget Act post-Civil War: establishment, then breakup of Appropriations progressive movement: “scientific government” and professionalization of government –1921 Budget Act post-WWI “retrenchment”; recentralization of Appropriations –1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act –Controlling deficits: the 1980s and omnibus legislation;