Title: What is a Mandate? - Definition & Examples - Social Science Class [2021 Video] | Study.com
Headings: What is a Mandate? - Definition & Examples
What is a Mandate? - Definition & Examples
Lesson Transcript
Mandates: When Winning Might Not Be Enough
When Is a Mandate Really a Mandate?
Roosevelt's Mandate
Reagan's Mandate
Truman's Mandate
Obama's Mandate
Register to view this lesson
Are you a student or a teacher?
What is a Mandate? - Definition & Examples
Start today. Try it now
What is a Mandate? - Definition & Examples
Related Study Materials

Content: Obama's Mandate
In 2012, Barack Obama ran for re-election in a deeply divided nation. His signature accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act, was the first successful attempt to provide health care on a national level, but was heartily despised by Republicans and not, at that point, especially popular with the rest of the electorate. Obama's campaign put the health care law at the center of the national debate and when the President won reelection in a fairly handy manner over the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, it was taken by many as a national endorsement of the Affordable Care Act and its status in American society. When a Mandate is Unclear (Which Is Always)
This may all sound awfully vague and uncertain. To be sure, there are times when it's clear that a candidate or a party does not have a mandate, especially when either attempts to implement policies on which they had not campaigned. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, for instance, was elected to office in 2012 and proceeded to pursue a massive change in collective bargaining rights for union employees, something he had barely mentioned during his campaign. The resulting furor (and an attempted recall of his governorship) was a sign that the electorate was not broadly in support of the plan. When a candidate or party makes specific promises to follow certain policies, this is often known as an imperative mandate, in that the candidate is expected to do what he or she promised. On the other hand, candidates are sometimes elected in the absence of specific policy instructions and this is often known as a free mandate, in which the electorate signals its acceptance of the candidate's general agenda, rather than specific policy pieces. In general, though, there is no real way to be certain, outside of electoral outcomes, if a candidate or party actually enjoys a mandate or not.