José D. Villalobos

Sitting with Oprah, Dancing with Ellen: Presidents, Daytime Television, and Soft News

José D. Villalobos — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:39:44 PST

Politics or Policy? How Rhetoric Matters to Presidential Leadership of Congress

José D. Villalobos et al. — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:28:21 PST

In this study, we examine the linkage between presidential policy proposal messages and legislative success. Employing a dataset on presidential legislative proposals that covers the years 1949-2010, we find that politics matters less than policy. Purely political messages that reference the electoral logic of mandates or appeal to a sense of bipartisanship appear to have no impact on presidential legislative success, nor does policy signaling, though highlighting the role of agency-based policy experts in crafting legislation does. From these results, we conclude that although the way presidents communicate their messages to Congress represents an important component of presidential-legislative relations, it is instead the perceived quality of the legislation that more strongly shapes congressional support of presidential policy efforts.

Agency Input as a Policy Making Tool: Analyzing the Influence of Agency Input on Presidential Policy Success in Congress

José D. Villalobos — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:36:15 PST

This study posits a theoretical framework for understanding the role and value of agency input in presidential legislative policy making. I assert that by employing agency input for policy development, presidents instill their proposals with a degree of bureaucratic objectivity, expertise, process transparency, and agency support, which aids their legislative passage while lowering the extent of changes made to policy substance in the process. To test my hypotheses, I conduct binary and ordered logistic regression analyses using pooled cross-sectional data across twelve administrations from 1949-2010. I find that agency input serves as a key component for increased presidential legislative success.

The Metamorphosis of Leadership in a Democratic Mexico (2010), by Roderic Ai Camp

José D. Villalobos — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:04:01 PDT

Manager-in-Chief: Applying Public Management Theory to Examine White House Chief of Staff Performance

David B. Cohen et al. — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:23:24 PDT

In an effort to examine the causal determinants of performance dynamics for the administrative presidency, we apply empirical public management theory to White House administration to explain managerial performance. Utilizing original survey data that measures the perceptions of former officials from the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, we conduct quantitative analyses to determine the extent to which a chief of staff’s background, relationship with the president, and internal as well as external management approaches shape overall perceptions of White House administrative efforts. We find that managerial dimensions matter considerably when explaining the dynamics of White House organizational performance.

The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity (2010), by Cristina Beltrán

José D. Villalobos — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:40:01 PDT

The Policy Czar Debate

Justin S. Vaughn et al. — Sun, 29 May 2011 02:46:25 PDT

Presidential policy czars have been an important and powerful component of President Barack Obama’s approach to management and leadership in the first part of his time in office. By using czars, the President has been able to demonstrate the importance of policy issues, both to his own agenda and to the broader political system. In this chapter, we find that performance outcomes for these czars have been a mixed bag, with as many stories of success to report as tales of frustration and failure. As such, we posit that the cost of czars, in political and organizational terms, has outweighed the benefits they have brought to the Obama Administration. Thus, we conclude that the rhetorical and institutional resistance to czars has increased to a point where it seems no longer pragmatic to utilize them, at least in the high-profile manner that this president and several of his predecessors have in recent decades.

Staff of the People? Assessing Progress in Descriptive Representation under the Obama Administration

José D. Villalobos — Sun, 29 May 2011 02:43:42 PDT

Over the past few decades, presidents have made some increasingly noticeable efforts to fill their administrations with a higher number of minorities. Though not yet fully representative of the general public, such advances in descriptive representation are a sign of progressive change occurring within the executive branch, with positive potential implications for the state of representative democracy and public policy. In this article, I survey the current state of descriptive representation under the Obama presidency and the extent to which the president’s policy agenda has substantively addressed the needs of historically underrepresented groups. Descriptively, I find that President Barack Obama has been symbolically progressive in adopting an inclusive approach for staffing the upper echelons of his administration. However, concerning substantive policy outcomes, I find that although the Obama administration has made some major strides concerning women’s issues, its record concerning the needs and expectations of the African American and Latino communities has been more mixed.

Ford Foundation

José D. Villalobos — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:32:32 PDT

Beyond the Barrio: Latinos in the 2004 Elections (2010), by Rodolfo O. de la Garza, Louis DeSipio, and David L. Leal (Eds.)

José D. Villalobos — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:31:17 PST

Agenda Setting from the Oval Office: An Experimental Examination of Presidential Influence over the Public Agenda

José D. Villalobos et al. — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:46:06 PST

This study employs an experimental approach to isolate and directly test the extent to which presidents can affect public perceptions of issue importance and support for policy action, taking into consideration key factors that condition such effects. Our findings provide new empirical evidence that presidents can, in fact, positively influence public opinion through agenda setting, particularly by increasing the perceptual importance of low salience foreign policy issues. However, the results also indicate that such positive effects do not translate into public support for policy action; instead, presidential appeals actually decrease support. Last, our study offers new evidence that employing bipartisan cues can help presidents further increase public perceptions of issue importance, though such cues are unlikely to spur increased support.

Promises and Human Rights: The Obama Administration on Immigrant Detention Policy Reform

José D. Villalobos — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:54:33 PST

This article evaluates the Obama administration’s efforts towards reforming U.S. immigration detention policies. Over the past decade, immigrant rights advocates have increasingly criticized certain policies of the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) system of immigration detention, including the widespread use of private contractors, lack of proper oversight, grouping of violent criminals and non-violent undocumented immigrants (particularly minority women and children) in holding cells, and neglect of detained immigrants in need of medical attention. In reviewing these developments, I contend that the Obama administration must take substantive steps towards reforming the existing system, particularly by instituting legally enforceable standards with penalties for performance failures, moving away from privatization, and applying more effective rulemaking for better management and monitoring of U.S. detention facilities.

Nixon’s Super-Secretaries: The Last Grand Presidential Reorganization Effort (2010), by Mordecai Lee

José D. Villalobos — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:33:46 PST

Where Does the Buck Stop? Applying Attribution Theory to Examine Public Appraisals of the President

Cigdem V. Sirin et al. — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:36:47 PST

This study applies attribution theory to examine public appraisals of the president. To date, most political science research on attribution theory has focused on domestic policy and no work has considered both domestic and foreign policy domains in tandem. To fill this gap, we formulate and experimentally test a series of hypotheses regarding the level of responsibility and credit/blame that individuals attribute to the president in both policy domains across varying policy conditions. We also consider how party compatibility affects people’s attribution judgments. Our findings provide a new contribution to the literature on political attributions, executive accountability, and public perceptions of presidential performance.

White House Staff

Justin S. Vaughn et al. — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:29:30 PDT

The White House Staff provides the bureaucratic framework that makes presidential leadership possible. Even though modern presidents continue to face constraints by the constitutional structure and political reality in successfully straddling the expectations gap that continues to enlarge, the staff presents the president with his best opportunity to anticipate and exploit leadership opportunities in the best case and manage crisis and cope with challenges in the worst. In recent decades, scholarly efforts to analyze the influence and importance of the White House staff has continued apace the institution’s own evolution. In this chapter, we evaluate the state of these efforts and offer commentary about the scholarly analysis concerning the White House staff, with particular attention paid to the expansion of the staff, centralization of key activities, and the expansion of knowledge about key personnel positions. We follow these discussions with a treatment of more recent research trends and some thoughts on future research directions.

James A. Garfield: 20th President of the United States

José D. Villalobos — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:02:22 PDT

President James A. Garfield served for only 200 days before an assassin’s bullets ended his unlikely rise to power. Garfield was the last “log cabin” president and a life-long Republican, both in the tradition of his predecessor, Ulysses Grant. In his lifetime, he served honorably as educator, general, and politician. His surprising nomination for president in 1880 earned him the nickname of the “Dark Horse” candidate, and his victory in the general election sealed his place in history as a U.S. president. His rise to power and tragic death highlight an important episode of the Gilded Age. Although Garfield’s time as President was cut short, his assassination set the stage for the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.

Revolt Against the Czars: Why Barack Obama’s Staffing Critics Are (Mostly) Wrong

José D. Villalobos et al. — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:57:20 PDT

Rather than view the alleged proliferation of “czars” in recent presidential administrations as a threat to the constitutional order, we consider it part of an ongoing reorganization of the presidential branch designed to maximize leadership capacity as presidents continue to take more responsibility for policy development and implementation, a phenomenon driven as much by congressional abdication as presidential zeal for power. The real debate lies over whether the president can delegate his constitutional authority to those who work beneath him. We posit that presidents may choose to delegate within their own discretion, so long as it is within the limits put forward by the constitution.

Political Information and Emotions in Ethnic Conflict Interventions

Cigdem V. Sirin et al. — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:29:16 PDT

This study explores the effects of political information and anger on the public’s cognitive processing and foreign policy preferences concerning third-party interventions in ethnic conflict. Our study employs an experimental design wherein we manipulate policy-specific information by generating ad hoc political information related to ethnic conflict. The statistical methods of analysis are logistic regression and analysis of covariance. The results demonstrate that both political information and anger have a significant impact on an individual’s cognitive processing and policy preferences regarding ethnic conflict interventions. Specifically, political information increases one’s proclivity to choose non-military policy options, whereas anger instigates support for aggressive policies. Both factors result in faster decision making with lower amounts of information accessed. The study also finds that policy-specific information—rather than general political information—influences the public’s policy preferences.

The Obama Administration's Challenges after the "War on Science": Reforming Staffing Practices and Protecting Scientific Integrity in the Executive Branch

Justin S. Vaughn et al. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:21:55 PST

In this article, we examine the difficult leadership position President Barack Obama inherited as he took office with respect to science and technology policy making and implementation, particularly following the Bush administration and years of the so-called "war on science." We contend that the Obama administration's challenge is not only to take substantive policy action, but also to reform certain administrative practices, particularly in light of the previous administration's practice of the politics of strategic vacancies, a managerial technique that rearranges an agency's ideological inclinations not through the usual forms of active politicization (i.e., by filling the appointee ranks with like-minded ideologues) but instead by "starving" the agency of staff and co-opting its agenda that way.

Issue Evasion

José D. Villalobos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:18:56 PDT