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The Rise of Sunbelt Governors: Conservative Outsiders in the W hite H ouse
Author(s) -
Ambar Saladin M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/psq.12088
Subject(s) - governor , presidential system , politics , presidency , political science , state (computer science) , public administration , white (mutation) , institution , politics of the united states , political economy , corporate governance , government (linguistics) , law , sociology , management , economics , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , algorithm , computer science , gene , thermodynamics , physics , linguistics
In memory of Alan Rosenthal There have been two periods in A merican political development where governors and their particular brand of politics have held sway in the W hite H ouse. The first period, occurring during the Progressive Era, was marked by presidents like T heodore R oosevelt and W oodrow W ilson, who brought their state‐honed reform agendas with them to the presidency. Three‐quarters of a century later, their push for greater federal authority over big business, machine politics, and ineffective direction of public policy at the local level, was met by fierce resistance from a different breed of governor‐presidents. Hailing from the Sunbelt, these governors sought to overturn the “Hudson” progressive model. The conservative (and at times moderate) presidential politics of R onald R eagan, B ill C linton, and G eorge W . B ush exemplified a brand of outsider governance dedicated to ending “big government.” Among their accomplishments was the confirmation of the A merican governorship as a distinctly powerful institution for shaping presidential behavior. This article examines this latter cohort of governor‐presidents and the meaning they brought to “outsider” politics.