Exogenous Interests, the Reagan Presidency, and Environmental Regulation.

Social movements and other ‘exogenous’ interests play an important yet insufficiently understood role in presidential politics. With this paper I will explore the various theoretical understandings of exogenous interests and the presidency, and then examine the case of President Reagan and regulatory politics. I explain that Reagan built new regulatory structures that survive today, and thus created a new regulatory politics according to his obligations to exogenous interests. I argue that presidential policymaking is compelled by the imperatives of responding to exogenous political forces like social movements, organized interest groups, and key voting blocs. I find evidence that three exogenous interest groups, the business sector, right-wing social movements, and the Democrats, were forces that compelled Reagan’s policymaking decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]