Leadership ability and agenda choice

Should a political leader first focus on smaller policy goals or start with the most ambitious policy agenda? We model a political leader who chooses the policy agenda and proposes policies to a responder. The leader has a high or low ability to persuade the responder to agree to a proposal, and both parties are symmetrically uninformed about this ability. If the belief about the leader's ability is low, then it is optimal to start with the ambitious policy, but the reverse is true if the belief is high. Addressing both policies together is dominated by a sequential approach.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.