The Impact Of Leadership Style And Power Resources Of The U.s. President's Policy Agenda

The national policy-making of the United States is influenced by many factors, in which Presidency plays a very important role. The policy agenda advocated by President has great possibility to become a formal national policy. Thus, it is important to understand the dynamic behind the success or failure of President's agenda. The question that this thesis seeks to answer is what kind of factors exerts noticeable influence on the policy-making capacity of a president.Belonging to the field of American president study, this thesis is designed to explain the American national policy-making from the perspective of presidency. To be concrete, the thesis puts forward two theoretical angles, president's leadership style and power resource, and then use the two angles to analyze the frustration of President Clinton's policy agenda in 1993-1994.The thesis falls into three parts. In the first part, we select the president-centered approach, put forward and explain the meanings of the two theoretical angles. The second part begins with an overview of the leadership style and power resource background of Clinton presidency, and then applies the two angles to the case study. We explained why the "economic stimulus package" and the "health care reform" advocated by President Clinton were frustrated on Capitol Hill. We conclude in the third part that president's leadership style and power resource greatly influence the president's policy agenda. Besides, we generalize the theories concerned in this thesis.