Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T12:18:48.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Presidential Particularism and Divide-the-Dollar Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

DOUGLAS L. KRINER  and
ANDREW REEVES
DOUGLAS L. KRINER*
Affiliation:
Boston University
ANDREW REEVES*
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis
*
Douglas L. Kriner is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Boston University, 232 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, http://people.bu.edu/dkriner (dkriner@bu.edu).
Andrew Reeves is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1063, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis MO 63130, http://www.andrewreeves.org (reeves@wustl.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When influencing the allocation of federal dollars across the country, do presidents strictly pursue maximally efficient outcomes, or do they systematically target dollars to politically influential constituencies? In a county-level analysis of federal spending from 1984 to 2008, we find that presidents are not universalistic, but particularistic—that is, they reliably direct dollars to specific constituents to further their political goals. As others have noted, presidents target districts represented by their co-partisans in Congress in the pursuit of influence vis-à-vis the legislature. But we show that, at much higher levels, presidents target both counties within swing states and counties in core states that strongly supported the president in recent elections. Swing state particularism is especially salient during presidential reelection years, and core partisan counties within swing states are most heavily rewarded. Rather than strictly pursuing visions of good public policy or pandering to the national median voter, our results suggest that presidents systematically prioritize the needs of politically important constituents.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 109 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 155 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adler, E. Scott, and Lapinski, John S.. 1997. “Demand-Side Theory and Congressional Committee Composition: A Constituency Characteristics Approach.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (3): 895–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albouy, David. 2013. “Partisan Representation in Congress and the Geographic Distribution of Federal Funds.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 95 (1): 127–41.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Roubini, Nouriel, and Cohen, Gerald D.. 1997. Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, R. Douglas. 1979. Congress and the Bureaucracy: A Theory of Influence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael A. 2007. “Comparable Preference Estimates across Time and Institutions for the Court, Congress, and Presidency.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (3): 433–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balla, Steven J., Lawrence, Eric D., Maltzman, Forrest, and Sigelman, Lee. 2002. “Partisanship, Blame Avoidance, and the Distribution of Legislative Pork.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (3): 515–25.Google Scholar
Banzhaff, III, John F. 1968. “One Man, 3.312 Votes: A Mathematical Analysis of the Electoral College.” Villanova Law Review 13 (Winter): 303–32.Google Scholar
Barrett, Andrew W., and Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. 2007. “Presidential Success on the Substance of Legislation.” Political Research Quarterly 60 (1): 100–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 1985. “Resource Allocation in a Presidential Campaign.” Journal of Politics 47 (3): 928–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, Larry M. 2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bartels, Larry M., and Zaller, John. 2001. “Presidential Vote Models: A Recount.” PS: Political Science & Politics 34 (1): 9–20.Google Scholar
Beckman, Matthew N. 2010. Pushing the Agenda: Presidential Leadership in U.S. Lawmaking 1953–2004. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berdahl, Clarence A. 1949. “Presidential Selection and Democratic Government.” Journal of Politics 11 (Feb): 14–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Christopher R., and Gersen, Jacob E.. 2010. “Agency Design and Distributive Politics.” John Olin Law and Economics Working Paper No. 539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Christopher R., Burden, Barry C., and Howell, William G.. 2010. “The President and the Distribution of Federal Spending.” American Political Science Review 104 (4): 783–99.Google Scholar
Bertelli, Anthony M., and Grose, Christian R.. 2009. “Secretaries of Pork? A New Theory of Distributive Public Policy.” Journal of Politics 71 (3): 926–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, Jon R., and Smith, Kevin B.. 2008. The Promise and Performance of American Democracy. 8th ed. New York: Thomson-Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Bonica, Adam, Chen, Jowei, and Johnson, Tim. 2012. Estimating the Political Ideologies of Appointed Public Bureaucrats: An Application to the Senate Confirmation of Presidential Nominees. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Political Methodology Chapel Hill, NC.Google Scholar
Books, John, and Prysby, Charles. 1999. “Contextual Effects on Retrospective Economic Evaluations the Impact of the State and Local Economy.” Political Behavior 21 (Mar): 1–16.Google Scholar
Brams, Steven J., and Davis, Morton D.. 1974. “The 3/2’s Rule in Presidential Campaigning.” American Political Science Review 68 (1): 113–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Charles M. 2000. Veto Bargaining: Presidents and the Politics of Negative Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Charles. 2002. “Studying the Polarized Presidency.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 32 (4): 647–63.Google Scholar
Campbell, Andrea, Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 2002. “Agenda Power in the U.S. Senate, 1877 to 1986.” In Party, Process, and Political Change in Congress: New Perspectives on the History of Congress, eds. David Brady and Mathew D. McCubbins. New York: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice. 2006. Who Leads Whom? Presidents, Policy, and the Public. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice, and De Marchi, Scott. 2002. “Presidential Approval and Legislative Success.” Journal of Politics 64 (2): 491–509.Google Scholar
Caro, Robert A. 2012. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Daniel P. 1996. “Adaptive Signal Processing, Hierarchy, and Budgetary Control in Federal Regulation.” American Political Science Review 90 (2): 283–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, Daniel P. 2001. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862–1928. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Charnock, Emily Jane, McCann, James A., and Tenpas, Kathryn Dunn. 2009. “Presidential Travel from Eisenhower to George W. Bush: An ‘Electoral College’ Strategy.” Political Science Quarterly 124 (2): 323–39.Google Scholar
Chen, Lanhee J., and Reeves, Andrew. 2011. “Turning Out the Base or Appealing to the Periphery? An Analysis of County-Level Candidate Appearances in the 2008 Presidential Campaign.” American Politics Research 39 (3): 534–56.Google Scholar
Clarke, Harold D., and Stewart, Marianne C.. 1994. “Prospections, Retrospections, and Rationality: The “Bankers” Model of Presidential Approval Reconsidered.” American Journal of Political Science 38 (4): 1104–23.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jeffrey E. 1999. Presidential Responsiveness and Public Policy-Making: The Public and the Policies that Presidents Choose. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jeffrey E. 2006. “The Polls: The Coalitional President from a Public Opinion Perspective.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 36 (3): 541–50.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jeffrey E., and Nice, David. 2003. The Presidency. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W. 2010. “Swing Voters, Core Voters, and Distributive Politics.” In Political Representation, eds. Shapiro, Ian, Stokes, Susan C., Wood, Elisabeth Jean, and Kirshner, Alexander S.. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1986. “Electoral Politics as a Redistributive Game.” Journal of Politics 48 (2): 370–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1993. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 2007. Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cronin, Thomas E., and Genovese, Michael A.. 2004. Paradoxes of the American Presidency. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Deering, Christopher J., and Smith, Steven S.. 1997. Committees in Congress. Washington, DC: CQ Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Den Hartog, Chris, and Monroe, Nathan W.. 2011. Agenda Setting in the U.S. Senate: Costly Consideration and Majority Party Advantage. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, Matthew. 2005. “The Executive Office of the President: The Paradox of Politicization.” In The Executive Branch, eds. Joel Aberbach and Mark Peterson. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Doherty, Brendan. 2012. The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Dynes, Adam, and Huber, Gregory A.. 2013. “Partisanship and the allocation of federal spending: Do same-party legislators or voters benefit from shared party affiliation.” (Typescript).Google Scholar
Edwards, III, George C. 2000. “Building Coalitions.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 30: 47–78.Google Scholar
Edwards, III, George C. 2004. Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, III, George C., Wattenberg, Martin P., and Lineberry, Robert I.. 2008. Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy. 13th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert S. 1989. “Economic Conditions and the Presidential Vote.” American Political Science Review 83 (2): 567–73.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., Bafumi, Joseph, and Wilson, Bret. 2001. “Was the 2000 Presidential Election Predictable?” PS: Political Science & Politics 34 (4): 815–9.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert S., MacKuen, Michael B., and Stimson, James A.. 2000. “Bankers or Peasants Revisited: Economic Expectations and Presidential Approval.” Electoral Studies 19 (2–3): 295–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitts, Michael, and Inman, Robert. 1991–1992. “Controlling Congress: Presidential Influence in Domestic Fiscal Policy.” Georgetown Law Review 80: 1737–86.Google Scholar
Gailmard, Sean, and Jenkins, Jeffery A.. 2007. “Negative Agenda Control in the Senate and House: Fingerprints of Majority Party Power.” Journal of Politics 69 (3): 689–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galvin, Daniel J. 2009. Presidential Party Building: Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasper, John T., and Reeves, Andrew. 2011a. “Governors as Opportunists: Evidence from Disaster Declaration Requests.” Typescript.Google Scholar
Gasper, John T., and Reeves, Andrew. 2011b. “Make it Rain? Retrospection and the Attentive Electorate in the Context of Natural Disasters.” American Journal of Political Science 55 (2): 340–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gimpel, James G., Lee, Frances E., and Thorpe, Rebecca U.. 2012. “Geographic Distribution of the Federal Stimulus of 2009.” Political Science Quarterly 127 (4): 567–95.Google Scholar
Gordon, Sanford C. 2011. “Politicizing Agency Spending Authority: Lessons from a Bush-era Scandal.” American Political Science Review 105 (4): 717–34.Google Scholar
Healy, Andrew, and Lenz, Gabriel S.. 2014. “Substituting the End for the Whole: Why Voters Respond Primarily to the Election-Year Economy.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (1): 31–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heclo, Hugh. 1975. “OMB and the Presidency—The Problem of ‘Nuetral Competence’.” The Public Interest 38: 80–98.Google Scholar
House, Chatham. 1995. The Presidential Branch: From Washington to Clinton. Chatham, NJ: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Howell, William G. 2003. Power without Persuasion: The Politics of Direct Presidential Action. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Howell, William, and Brent, David. 2013. Thinking about the Presidency: The Primacy of Power. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Howell, William, and Lewis, David. 2002. “Agencies by Presidential Design.” Journal of Politics 64 (4): 1095–114.Google Scholar
Howell, William G., Jackman, Saul P., and Rogowski, Jon C.. 2013. The Wartime President. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Howell, William G., and Moe, Terry M.. 2013. “Inefficacy, Anxiety, and Leadership.” Social Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Huber, Gregory A., Hill, Seth J., and Lenz, Gabriel S.. 2012. “Sources of Bias in Retrospective Decision Making: Experimental Evidence on Voters’ Limitations in Controlling Incumbents.” American Political Science Review 106 (4): 720–41.Google Scholar
Hudak, John. 2014. Presidential Pork: White House Influence over the Distribution of Federal Grants. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hudak, John, and Stack, Kevin M.. 2013. “The President and the Politics of Agency Enforcement: The Case of Superfund.” Typescript.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 2013. The Politics of Congressional Elections. Longman Classics in Political Science, 8th ed. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Kagan, Elena. 2001. “Presidential Administration.” Harvard Law Review 114: 2245–385.Google Scholar
Kiewiet, D. Roderick, and McCubbins, Matthew. 1988. “Presidential Influence on Congressional Appropriations Decisions.” American Political Science Review 32: 713–36.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Kiewiet, D. Roderick. 1981. “Sociotropic Politics: The American Case.” British Journal of Political Science 11 (2): 129–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriner, Douglas L., and Reeves, Andrew. 2012. “The Influence of Federal Spending on Presidential Elections.” American Political Science Review 106 (2): 348–66.Google Scholar
Kriner, Douglas L., and Shen, Francis X.. 2007. “Iraq Casualties and the 2006 Senate Elections.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 32 (4): 507–30.Google Scholar
Kriner, Douglas L., and Shen, Francis X.. 2010. The Casualty Gap. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Larcinese, Valentino, Rizzo, Leonzio, and Testa, Cecilia. 2006. “Allocating the U.S. Federal Budget to the States: The Impact of the President.” Journal of Politics 68 (May): 447–56.Google Scholar
Lee, Frances E. 2009. Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitt, Steven D., and Sndyer, James M. Jr., 1995. “Political Parties and the Distribution of Federal Outlays.” American Journal of Political Science 39 (4): 958–80.Google Scholar
Lewis, David. 2003. Presidents and the Politics of Agency Design: Political Insulation in the United States Government Bureaucracy, 1946–1997. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, David E. 2008. The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Stegmaier, Mary. 2000. “Economic Determinants of Electoral Outcomes.” Annual Review of Political Science 3: 183–219.Google Scholar
Light, Paul C. 1998 [1982]. The President’s Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Clinton. 3rd ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lindbeck, Assar, and Weibull, Jörgen W.. 1987. “Balanced-Budget Redistribution as the Outcome of Political Competition.” Public Choice 52 (3): 273–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKuen, Michael B., Erikson, Robert S., and Stimson, James A.. 1992. “Peasants or Bankers? The American Electorate and the U.S. Economy.” American Political Science Review 86 (3): 597–611.Google Scholar
Mann, Thomas E., and Ornstein, Normal J.. 2013. It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Marshall, Bryan W., and Prins, Brandon C.. 2007. “Strategic Position Taking and Presidential Influence in Congress.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 32 (2): 257–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshaw, Jerry. 1985. “Prodelegation: Why Adminsitrators Should Make Political Decisions.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 1 (1): 81–100.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S. 2003. “Voting’s Rewards: Voter Turnout, Attentive Publics, and Congressional Allocation of Federal Money.” American Journal of Political Science 47 (1): 110–27.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan M. 2000. “Presidential Pork: Executive Veto Power and Distributive Politics.” American Political Science Review 94 (1): 117–29.Google Scholar
Milkis, Sidney M., Rhodes, Jesse H., and Charnock, Emily J.. 2012. “What Happened to Post-Partisanship? Barack Obama and the New American Party System.” Perspectives on Politics 10 (1): 57–76.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 1985a. “The Politicized Presidency” in The New Direction in American Politics, eds. Chubb, John E. and Peterson, Paul E.. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 1985b. “Control and Feedback in Economic Regulation: The Case of the NLRB.” American Political Science Review 79 (4): 1094–116.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 1990. “Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 6: 213–53.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M., and Wilson, Scott A.. 1994. “Presidents and the Politics of Structure.” Law and Contemporary Problems 57 (2): 1–44.Google Scholar
Nagler, Jonathan, and Leighley, Jan. 1992. “Presidential Campaign Expenditures: Evidence on Allocations and Effects.” Public Choice 73 (3): 319–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nathan, Richard P. 1983. The Administrative Presidency. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Nathan, Richard P., and Doolittle, Fred C.. 1987. Reagan and the States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Norpoth, Helmut. 1985. “Politics, Economics, and the Cycle of Presidential Popularity.” in Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes, eds. Eulau, Heinz and Lewis-Beck, Michael. New York: Agathon.Google Scholar
Nzelibe, Jide. 2006. “The Fable of the Nationalist President and Parochial Congress.” UCLA Law Review 53 (5): 1217–73.Google Scholar
Page, Lawrence, and Shapiro, Robert. 2000. Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, Thomas E. 1990. The American Democracy. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Pika, Joseph A., Maltese, John Anthony, and Thomas, Norman C.. 2006. The Politics of the Presidency. Revised 6th ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Pious, Richard M. 1996. The Presidency. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Reeves, Andrew. 2011. “Political Disaster: Unilateral Powers, Electoral Incentives, and Presidential Disaster Declarations.” Journal of Politics 73 (4): 1142–51.Google Scholar
Reeves, Andrew, and Gimpel, James G.. 2012. “Ecologies of Unease: Geographic Context and National Economic Evaluations.” Political Behavior 34 (3): 507–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, Douglas, and Rose, Nancy L.. 1985. “Passing the President’s Program: Public Opinion and Presidential Influence in Congress.” American Journal of Political Science 29 (2): 183–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudalevige, Andrew. 2002. Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership and Legislative Policy Formulation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schick, Allen. 2000. The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, Daron R. 1999. “The Methods behind the Madness: Presidential Electoral College Strategies.” Journal of Politics 61 (Nov): 893–913.Google Scholar
Shaw, Daron R. 2006. The Race to 270: The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1981. “Political Preferences for the Pork Barrel: A Generalization.” American Journal of Political Science 25 (1): 96–111.Google Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1987. “The Institutional Foundations of Committee Power.” The American Political Science Review 81 (1): 85–104.Google Scholar
Stein, Robert M., and Bickers, Kenneth N.. 1995. Perpetuating the Pork Barrel: Policy Subsystems and American Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tomkin, Shelley Lynne. 1998. Inside OMB: Politics and Process in the President’s Budget Office. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Tufte, Edward R. 1978. Political Control of the Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, Richard W. 1989. Presidential Influence and the Administrative State. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 1979. “A Rational Choice Perspective on Congressional Norms.” American Journal of Political Science 23 (2): 245–62.Google Scholar
Wilson, Woodrow. 1908. Constitutional Government in the United States. New York: The Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, B. Dan. 2009. The Myth of Presidential Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, B. Dan, and Waterman, Richard W.. 1994. Bureaucratic Dynamics: The Role of Bureaucracy in a Democracy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Yildirim, Huseyin. 2007. “Proposal Power and Majority Rule in Multilateral Bargaining with Costly Recognition.” Journal of Economic Theory 136 (1): 167–96.Google Scholar