ABSTRACT
The United States has one president, but it has two presidencies; one presidency is for domestic affairs, and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy. "The Two Presidencies" argued that foreign and domestic policy are shaped in distinct political arenas, marked by quite different political configurations. Presidential success in Congress, perhaps because it is easily quantified, has become the central issue of this ongoing debate. The overall picture is that of a foreign policymaking process insulated from the pluralistic pressures normally associated with American democracy. The studies of congressional voting patterns referred to earlier provide strong evidence of partisan divisions in foreign policy. "The Two Presidencies" is time- and culture-bound. It succeeds in showing that the Eisenhower administration had higher support in foreign and defense matters as compared to domestic policy and in explaining why. The breakdown of a postwar bipartisan policy consensus has been a common theme among foreign policy analysts.
