In this third edition, Paul Light updates his study by weighing the successes and failures of the Bush and Clinton presidencies in setting up a legislative agenda of domestic issues for Congress. The most noticeable development, according to Light, is the shrinking of the agenda and the absence of fresh new ideas. Explaining the emergence of "the derivative presidency", he attributes this increasingly limited social arena to the problems associated with the end of the welfare state, the thickening of government, the problems of the budget, the "Reagan effect", and the changing nature of party politics.
