The Myth of Presidential Representation

B. Dan Wood holds the Cornerstone Fellowship at Texas A&M University. He is the author of The Politics of Economic Leadership: The Causes and Consequences of Presidential Rhetoric (2007) and coauthor of Bureaucratic Dynamics: The Role of Bureaucracy in a Democracy (1994), as well as numerous scholarly articles. Professor Wood has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Political Science, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Political Analysis, Political Research Quarterly, and American Politics Quarterly and is a frequent instructor at the European Consortium for Political Research summer methods program at the University of Essex.

• 1. The nature of presidential representation; 2. The centrist and partisan theories of presidential representation; 3. Measuring mass preferences and presidential issue stances; 4. Evaluating the centrist vs. partisan models of presidential representation; 5. Presidential persuasion and the mass public; 6. Centrism, partisanship, and public approval of the president's job performance; 7. The efficacy for American democracy of non-centrist, partisan presidential representation.

“Dan Wood is one of our most respected scholars. In this new book Wood asks the question: Are presidents responsive to public opinion when making policy decisions? Wood uses a meticulously collected data set, the best yet collected to address this question, as well as advanced and appropriate time series analysis techniques. He finds little presidential responsiveness, contrary to several major studies. Wood's findings have profound implications for the operation of democracy in the United States, for our understanding of the relationship between the president and the public, and will stimulate much debate and research on this important topic.” – Jeffrey Cohen, Fordham University