The bully pulpit is one of the modern president’s most powerful tools—and one of the most elusive to measure.
Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda, by Andrew B. Whitford, professor of public administration and policy in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs, and Jeff Yates, Johns Hopkins University, uses the war on drugs as a case study to explore whether and how a president’s public statements affect the formation and carrying out of policy in the U.S.
Using qualitative and quantitative measurements, the authors examine presidential proclamations about battling illicit drug use and their effect on the enforcement of anti-drug laws at the national, state and local levels. They analyze specific pronouncements and the social and political contexts in which they are made; examine the relationship between presidential leadership in the war on drugs and the policy agenda of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. attorneys; and assess how closely a president’s drug policy is implemented in local jurisdictions.
In evaluating the data, this study of presidential leadership shows that a president can effectively harness the bully pulpit to drive policy.