ABSTRACT
In 1994 the Republicans effectively nationalized the congressional elections. The congressional Republicans, particularly under Newt Gingrich's leadership in the House, acted quickly and decisively on the items promised in the contract and they were able to pass several of the most popular and high profile proposals. Gingrich and the congressional Republicans were riding high and heady talk was heard again about the potential for a new long term Conservative-Republican majority being formed. The election of 2002 is just around the corner after the post-mortems on the presidential and congressional races of 2000 are complete. In essence there are two patterns of executive–legislative relations that confront a new president and Congress upon taking office. The first is the deep partisan conflict pattern and the second is the bipartisan coalition-building pattern. The second pattern of executive–legislative relations is the Bi-Partisan coalition building or compromise model.
