Title: There's No Such Thing as a Presidential Mandate - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: There's No Such Thing as a Presidential Mandate
There's No Such Thing as a Presidential Mandate
What Is a Presidential Mandate?
Votes Are Not Policy
No Consensus among Trump Voters
The Myth of Democratic Socialism
Even Voting with Dollars Is Hard to Interpret

Content: presidents often rely on their election victory to cajole Congress into compliance. But the presidential mandate does not exist. What Is a Presidential Mandate? In his 1990 article, “The Myth of the Presidential Mandate,” political scientist Robert A. Dahl notes how the presidential mandate is based on two lofty claims: A majority of voters prefer the winner’s policies. Because the people prefer the president’s policies, the president’s policies should triumph if Congress and the president disagree. A majority of voters never prefer a specific policy. In other words, the presidential mandate derives from a sycophantic view of the presidency and the significance of elections. It claims that a majority of all voters prefer all of the new president’s policies. It presumes that the President is some sort of special representative of the people, and that unique position grants him special powers — powers that transcend the Constitution.