“GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER”

Abstract

Presidents use the perquisites of their office to build support and goodwill among members of Congress, which they then use to increase support for their legislative agendas. Among those perquisites is the ability to invite members to social functions at the White House. This article determines what types of members received invitations between 1961 and 1967 in order to discern the strategies guiding their distribution. It then assesses their impact on the subsequent support provided by those recipients. The findings concerning the distribution of invitations show that presidents Kennedy and Johnson allocated invitations according to a “reward strong supporters” strategy: A president's favors go to his strongest supporters. They also show that party and committee leaders benefit more than rank-and-file members. The most surprising finding is that a member's party makes little difference. These findings indicate the presidents Kennedy and Johnson adhered to a fairly conservative approach to building coalitions, preferring to reward known supporters rather than to try to entice additional support from more marginal sources. The findings concerning the effects of receiving invitations indicate that southern Democratic support was increased, while support from northern Democrats and Republicans was not. The findings also demonstrate the value of complementing, when possible, knowledge about the presidency obtained from more traditional sources of information with knowledge derived from the systematic analysis of aggregate data.