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The American President As Legislative Leader: Historical Development Of The Role, Patricia Mathews Walhood

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis seeks to define the American President's role as legislative leader and to trace the origin and development of that role throughout the history of the office of the presidency. Presidents were not consistently active in this capacity until the middle of the twentieth century.

The first part of the thesis examines precedents set by strong presidents prior to and early in the twentieth century, as well as an important institutional change in the government, the creation of the Budget System, which smoothed the way for Presidential adoption of the tasks of legislative leader.

The middle sections of the …