The Power of American Governors: Winning on Budgets and Losing on Policy [Paperback]

Governors can be powerful actors in the lawmaking process, but what they're bargaining over shapes their strategy and effectiveness.This book asks whether governors, who have limited authority over state lawmaking but hold ultimate responsibility for the performance of government, can effectively govern? Thad Kousser and Justin H. Phillips advance a new theory of executive power, framed in strategic models informed by interviews with governors and their top advisors. A series of novel empirical analyses and rich case studies demonstrate that governors can be powerful actors in the lawmaking process, but that what they're bargaining over  the budget or policy bills  shapes both how they play the game and how often they win.This book asks whether governors, who have limited authority over state lawmaking but hold ultimate responsibility for the performance of government, can effectively govern? Thad Kousser and Justin H. Phillips advance a new theory of executive power, framed in strategic models informed by interviews with governors and their top advisors. A series of novel empirical analyses and rich case studies demonstrate that governors can be powerful actors in the lawmaking process, but that what they're bargaining over  the budget or policy bills  shapes both how they play the game and how often they win.With limited authority over state lawmaking, but ultimate responsibility for the performance of government, how effective are governors in moving their programs through the legislature? This book advances a new theory about what makes chief executives most successful and explores this theory through original data. Thad Kousser and Justin H. Phillips argue that negotiations over the budget, on the one hand, and policy bills on the other are driven by fundamentally different dynamics. They capture these dynamics in models informed by interviews with gubernatorial advisors, cabinet members, press secretaries, and governors themselves. Through a series of novel3²