The book provides students with a comprehensive, up-to-date, and balanced view of how the two major branches of national government work together to make public policy. The authors, one a presidential scholar and the other a congressional scholar, view the two branches as coequals in policymaking, operating as “tandem institutions” in a separated system.

The text is organized around an original framework that identifies four patterns of policymaking: presidential leadership, congressional leadership, consensus/cooperation, and deadlock/extraordinary resolution. The text employs a policy focus, looking not only at the policy process but also evaluating policy results in the areas of foreign policy, civil rights, economic and budget policy, and social welfare. A separate case study illustrates each of the four patterns in each of the four policy areas, serving as an integral part of the text to enhance the student's understanding. Timely and complete, the text provides the most recent research on Congress, the President, and divided government and reflects the important changes of the 1990s, such as the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 and the wide variety of patterns that have developed between President Clinton and Congress. The four patterns of policymaking and the case studies comprise an effective tool for helping students understand the increasingly complex relations between Congress and the President.