Presidential Veto

4 Pages 1041 Words

The Presidential veto has to do with much more than just the President saying no to a piece of Legislation. The President is influenced by many people, groups, as well as other influences before he makes a veto decision, although his own personal bias toward a subject holds a big role in his decision. The most important of the institutional influences is the nature and provocative ness of the legislation that Congress passes. Some important individual influences include the presidents “inflexibility” as a personality trait, which tends to cause presidents to veto more often. In this summary I will discuss in the individual and institutional influences on the president’s veto through the research of John B. Gilmore. In this summary I will explain some of the institutional variables under the presidency –centered approach which include, senate minority opposition, house minority opposition, senate majority opposition, house majority opposition, president’s popularity, midterm elections, veto proof margin’s, unemployment rate, and the subject to pocket veto. Also, the presidency-centered individual variables include presidential dummy variables and the president’s position on a piece of legislation which I will talk about a little later.

Gilmour evaluates the difference between the “president” and “presidency” centered explanations of the presidential veto through many researchers such as Neustadt, Hager, Sullivan, Shields, Huang, Simonton, Rohde, Simon, and Woolley. The President-centered view believes that the president will have the freedom of action to impose his own views of leadership on the office and “to be as big a man as he can .” Presidency –centered explanations view the president as a clerk rather than a leader. Presidential veto behavior is determined by institutional factors beyond the control of the president according to presidency centered hypothesis one. Hypothes...