In 1966, Aaron Wildavsky published an isolated article on the differences between presidential power in domestic policy making and foreign policy making in a journal that no longer exists. Wildavsky was already a prominent political scientist – probably the leading student of the American budgetary process – and he would become a leading figure in the literature on policy analysis and culturally oriented theories of politics and president of the American Political Science Association among other things – when he wrote the article based on what he called the “two presidencies thesis.” In a nutshell, Wildavsky argued that in the 1950s and the early 1960s the president's policy-making powers in the foreign policy arena greatly outstripped his powers in the domestic policy-making arena. In more specific terms, Wildavsky wrote:

More than four decades later, Wildavsky's “two presidencies” thesis would appear to have been turned on its head. While an embattled George W. Bush faced increasing criticism of his handling of the Iraq War and its aftermath in the waning days of his presidency, he was also able to win passage of the largest financial bailout legislation in American history.