Thinking About The Presidency

Author : William G. Howell
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691165688
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Thinking About the Presidency written by William G. Howell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-22 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the search for power defines the American presidential office All American presidents, past and present, have cared deeply about power—acquiring, protecting, and expanding it. While individual presidents obviously have other concerns, such as shaping policy or building a legacy, the primacy of power considerations—exacerbated by expectations of the presidency and the inadequacy of explicit powers in the Constitution—sets presidents apart from other political actors. Thinking about the Presidency explores presidents' preoccupation with power. Distinguished presidential scholar William Howell looks at the key aspects of executive power—political and constitutional origins, philosophical underpinnings, manifestations in contemporary political life, implications for political reform, and looming influences over the standards to which we hold those individuals elected to America's highest office. Howell shows that an appetite for power may not inform the original motivations of those who seek to become president. Rather, this need is built into the office of the presidency itself—and quickly takes hold of whoever bears the title of Chief Executive. In order to understand the modern presidency, and the degrees to which a president succeeds or fails, the acquisition, protection, and expansion of power in a president's political life must be recognized—in policy tools and legislative strategies, the posture taken before the American public, and the disregard shown to those who would counsel modesty and deference within the White House. Thinking about the Presidency assesses how the search for and defense of presidential powers informs nearly every decision made by the leader of the nation. In a new preface, Howell reflects on presidential power during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Author : William G. Howell
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400866219
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Thinking About the Presidency written by William G. Howell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-22 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the search for power defines the American presidential office All American presidents, past and present, have cared deeply about power—acquiring, protecting, and expanding it. While individual presidents obviously have other concerns, such as shaping policy or building a legacy, the primacy of power considerations—exacerbated by expectations of the presidency and the inadequacy of explicit powers in the Constitution—sets presidents apart from other political actors. Thinking about the Presidency explores presidents' preoccupation with power. Distinguished presidential scholar William Howell looks at the key aspects of executive power—political and constitutional origins, philosophical underpinnings, manifestations in contemporary political life, implications for political reform, and looming influences over the standards to which we hold those individuals elected to America's highest office. Howell shows that an appetite for power may not inform the original motivations of those who seek to become president. Rather, this need is built into the office of the presidency itself—and quickly takes hold of whoever bears the title of Chief Executive. In order to understand the modern presidency, and the degrees to which a president succeeds or fails, the acquisition, protection, and expansion of power in a president's political life must be recognized—in policy tools and legislative strategies, the posture taken before the American public, and the disregard shown to those who would counsel modesty and deference within the White House. Thinking about the Presidency assesses how the search for and defense of presidential powers informs nearly every decision made by the leader of the nation. In a new preface, Howell reflects on presidential power during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Author : William G. Howell
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780691155340
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Thinking about the Presidency written by William G. Howell and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All American presidents, past and present, have cared deeply about power--acquiring, protecting, and expanding it. While individual presidents obviously have other concerns, such as shaping policy or building a legacy, the primacy of power considerations--exacerbated by expectations of the presidency and the inadequacy of explicit powers in the Constitution--sets presidents apart from other political actors. Thinking about the Presidency explores presidents' preoccupation with power. Distinguished presidential scholar William Howell looks at the key aspects of executive power--political and constitutional origins, philosophical underpinnings, manifestations in contemporary political life, implications for political reform, and looming influences over the standards to which we hold those individuals elected to America's highest office. Howell shows that an appetite for power may not inform the original motivations of those who seek to become president. Rather, this need is built into the office of the presidency itself--and quickly takes hold of whomever bears the title of Chief Executive. In order to understand the modern presidency, and the degrees to which a president succeeds or fails, the acquisition, protection, and expansion of power in a president's political life must be recognized--in policy tools and legislative strategies, the posture taken before the American public, and the disregard shown to those who would counsel modesty and deference within the White House. Thinking about the Presidency assesses how the search for and defense of presidential powers informs nearly every decision made by the leader of the nation.

Author : Robert Wilson
Publisher : Public Affairs
ISBN 13 : 1891620436
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Power And The Presidency written by Robert Wilson and published by Public Affairs. This book was released on 1999 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biographers, historians, and journalists explore how selected US presidents of the 20th century have commanded, wielded, and sometimes dissipated the influence of the office. They look at the executive careers of Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and William Clinton. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Gary L. Gregg
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Pub Incorporated
ISBN 13 : 9780742543379
Total Pages : 542 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Thinking about the Presidency written by Gary L. Gregg and published by Rowman & Littlefield Pub Incorporated. This book was released on 2005 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking About the Presidency is a concise, highly readable introduction to the American Presidency. As the only presidency reader updated through the September 11 attacks, the Iraq War, and the 2004 race for the presidency, this new text provides students with the most current information available on the presidency. Bringing together classic essays, primary sources, and contemporary scholarship, this new text encourages students to draw their own conclusions about major issues of constitutional governance while providing them with the foundation for continued thought about the office in the years to come. To aid students in learning and reviewing, each section begins with a substantive introduction that places each reading into a coherent theoretical and historical context. To promote critical analysis and facilitate meaningful classroom discussions, each introduction includes thought-provoking questions for each of the readings. Gregg uses unique "Constitutional Context" boxes to directly relate sections of the Constitution to the topic being presented and his "Quick Facts" boxes provide ready reference materials to students.

Author : Jack Goldsmith
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393083519
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11 written by Jack Goldsmith and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising truth behind Barack Obama's decision to continue many of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies. Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumed—endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and more—are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraints—enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the media—that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable. These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framers’ original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.

Author : Charles O. Jones
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 081579777X
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Presidency in a Separated System written by Charles O. Jones and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005-10-01 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular interpretations of American government tend to center on the presidency. Successes and failures of government are often attributed to presidents themselves. But, though the White House stands as a powerful symbol of government, the United States has a separated system intentionally designed to distribute power, not to concentrate it. Charles O. Jones explains that focusing exclusively on the presidency can lead to a seriously distorted picture of how the national government works. The role of the president varies widely, depending on his resources, advantages, and strategic position. Public expectations often far exceed the president's personal, political, institutional, or constitutional capacities for achievement. Jones explores how presidents find their place in the permanent government and how they are "fitted in" by others, most notably those on Capitol Hill. This book shows how a separated system of government works under the circumstances created by the Constitution and encouraged by a two-party system. Jones examines the organizational challenges facing presidents, their public standing and what it means, presidential agendas and mandates, and lawmaking—how it works, where the president fits in, and how it varies from issue to issue. He compares the post-World War II presidents and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each in working within the separated system. Jones proposes a view of government as a legitimate, even productive, form of decisionmaking and emphasizes the varying strategies available to presidents for governing. He concludes with a number of important lessons for presidents and advice on how to make the separated system work better.

Author : William G. Howell
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691102708
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Power Without Persuasion written by William G. Howell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2003-07-28 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 1960s, scholarly thinking on the power of U.S. presidents has rested on these words: "Presidential power is the power to persuade." Power, in this formulation, is strictly about bargaining and convincing other political actors to do things the president cannot accomplish alone. Power without Persuasion argues otherwise. Focusing on presidents' ability to act unilaterally, William Howell provides the most theoretically substantial and far-reaching reevaluation of presidential power in many years. He argues that presidents regularly set public policies over vocal objections by Congress, interest groups, and the bureaucracy. Throughout U.S. history, going back to the Louisiana Purchase and the Emancipation Proclamation, presidents have set landmark policies on their own. More recently, Roosevelt interned Japanese Americans during World War II, Kennedy established the Peace Corps, Johnson got affirmative action underway, Reagan greatly expanded the president's powers of regulatory review, and Clinton extended protections to millions of acres of public lands. Since September 11, Bush has created a new cabinet post and constructed a parallel judicial system to try suspected terrorists. Howell not only presents numerous new empirical findings but goes well beyond the theoretical scope of previous studies. Drawing richly on game theory and the new institutionalism, he examines the political conditions under which presidents can change policy without congressional or judicial consent. Clearly written, Power without Persuasion asserts a compelling new formulation of presidential power, one whose implications will resound.

Author : Susan Hennessey
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374718415
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Unmaking the Presidency written by Susan Hennessey and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a book for everyone who has developed an unexpected nostalgia for political 'norms' during the Trump years . . . Other books on the Trump White House expertly detail the mayhem inside; this book builds on those works to detail its consequences." —Carlos Lozada (one of twelve books to read "to understand what's going on") "Perhaps the most penetrating book to have been written about Trump in office." —Lawrence Douglas, The Times Literary Supplement The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies. From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage? As editors of the “invaluable” (The New York Times) Lawfare website, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have attracted a large audience to their hard-hitting and highly informed commentary on the controversies surrounding the Trump administration. In this book, they situate Trump-era scandals and outrages in the deeper context of the presidency itself. How should we understand the oath of office when it is taken by a man who may not know what it means to preserve, protect, and defend something other than himself? What aspects of Trump are radically different from past presidents and what aspects have historical antecedents? When has he simply built on his predecessors’ misdeeds, and when has he invented categories of misrule entirely his own? By setting Trump in the light of history, Hennessey and Wittes provide a crucial and durable account of a presidency like no other.

Author : David Gordon
Publisher : Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN 13 : 1610166140
Total Pages : 619 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Reassessing the Presidency written by David Gordon and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

American Despots

Amazing low sale price in defense of authentic freedom as versus the presidency that betrayed it!

Everyone seems to agree that brutal dictators and despotic rulers deserve scorn and worse. But why have historians been so willing to overlook the despotic actions of the United States' own presidents? You can scour libraries from one end to the other and encounter precious few criticisms of America's worst despots.

The founders imagined that the president would be a collegial leader with precious little power who constantly faced the threat of impeachment. Today, however, the president orders thousands of young men and women to danger and death in foreign lands, rubber stamps regulations that throw enterprises into upheaval, controls the composition of the powerful Federal Reserve, and manages the priorities millions of swarms of bureaucrats that vex the citizenry in every way.

It is not too much of a stretch to say that the president embodies the Leviathan state as we know it. Or, more precisely, it is not an individual president so much as the very institution of the presidency that has been the major impediment of liberty. The presidency as the founders imagined it has been displaced by democratically ratified serial despotism. And, for that reason, it must be stopped.

Every American president seems to strive to make the historians' A-list by doing big and dramatic things—wars, occupations, massive programs, tyrannies large and small—in hopes of being considered among the "greats" such as Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR. They always imagine themselves as honored by future generations: the worse their crimes, the more the accolades.

Well, the free ride ends with Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom, edited by John Denson.

This remarkable volume (825 pages including index and bibliography) is the first full-scale revision of the official history of the U.S. executive state. It traces the progression of power exercised by American presidents from the early American Republic up to the eventual reality of the power-hungry Caesars which later appear as president in American history. Contributors examine the usual judgments of the historical profession to show the ugly side of supposed presidential greatness.

The mission inherent in this undertaking is to determine how the presidency degenerated into the office of American Caesar. Did the character of the man who held the office corrupt it, or did the power of the office, as it evolved, corrupt the man? Or was it a combination of the two? Was there too much latent power in the original creation of the office as the Anti-Federalists claimed? Or was the power externally created and added to the position by corrupt or misguided men?

There's never been a better guide to everything awful about American presidents. No, you won't get the civics text approach of see no evil. Essay after essay details depredations that will shock you, and wonder how American liberty could have ever survived in light of the rule of these people.

Contributors include George Bittlingmayer, John V. Denson, Marshall L. DeRosa, Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Lowell Gallaway, Richard M. Gamble, David Gordon, Paul Gottfried, Randall G. Holcombe, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Michael Levin, Yuri N. Maltsev, William Marina, Ralph Raico, Joseph Salerno, Barry Simpson, Joseph Stromberg, H. Arthur Scott Trask, Richard Vedder, and Clyde Wilson.