1989 alumni and L.E. Meador Professor of Political Science and Director of the Meador Center for Politics and Citizenship at Drury University, Dan Ponder, recently posted Presidential Leverage in Comparative Politics. This piece is an application of the theory presented in Dan’s book, Presidential Leverage Presidents, Approval, and the American State.

He argues “that scholars should examine the place of an institution in the public’s judgment to evaluate the degree of autonomy that the institution and institutional actors enjoy.”