2012/10/29 by David A. Crockett · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Race, History, and American Society
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.04023.x
openalex publication_date 2012/10/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This article constitutes a comparative analysis of nineteenth‐century “restoration presidents”—presidents from the dominant party who come to power immediately following opposition presidents—to determine the extent to which they were able to act as free agents or were bound by prior commitments. These presidents established the pattern for leadership of which G eorge W . Bush is the latest exemplar. Specifically, this article focuses attention on the J acksonian D emocrats following the W hig presidencies ( P olk and P ierce) and the R epublicans following C leveland's two administrations ( H arrison and M c K inley). A recurrent pattern in these presidencies is that they and their regime allies see their immediate opposition party predecessors as illegitimate threats to the dominant party's ascendancy and in response these “restoration presidents” tend to overreach, pushing the regime toward its disjunction. Exploring the common elements among this group of presidents will facilitate a more accurate understanding of similarly placed presidents in the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries.