The premise behind this book is that policy making provides a useful perspective for studying the presidency, perhaps the most important and least understood policy-making institution in the United States. The eleven essays focus on diverse aspects of presidential policy making, providing insights on the presidency and its relationship to other policy-making actors and institutions. Major topics addressed include the environment of presidential policy making and the constraints it places on the chief executive; relationships with those outside the executive branch that are central to presidential policy making; attempts to lead the public and Congress; presidential decision making; and administration or implementation of policies in the executive branch, a topic that has received limited attention in the literature on the presidency.

Throughout American history presidents have been accused of being liars, of deceiving others for political gain, of being corrupt, or of violating the Constitution. Such criticism is, to some extent, a facet of our political culture. Yet, in recent years the intensity and depth of hostility coming from news reporters, political pundits, and even academics seems unprecedented. It is the argument of "The Making of the Postmodern Presidency" that something more fundamental is occurring other than personal mendacity, character failures, or political errors; that, in fact, the model we have used to explain presidential behavior no longer works.The dominant paradigm used to assess presidential behavior-the modern presidency-is no longer an adequate explanatory model. Nonetheless, those who study the presidency continue to use it to explain behavior. This book claims that the more relevant paradigm that should be used today is the postmodern presidency model. This book traces the origins and development of the postmodern presidency.The heart of the book is composed of an examination of the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to show how each has contributed to the evolution and formation of the postmodern presidency. A penultimate chapter analyzes the 2008 presidential election through the lens of postmodernism. The book concludes with speculation on the challenges that face the Obama presidency in light of the postmodern presidency and American democracy.

Arguing that “the presidency” is not defined by the Constitution—which doesn’t use the term—but by what presidents say and how they say it, Deeds Done in Words has been the definitive book on presidential rhetoric for more than a decade. In Presidents Creating the Presidency, Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson expand and recast their classic work for the YouTube era, revealing how our media-saturated age has transformed the ever-evolving rhetorical strategies that presidents use to increase and sustain the executive branch’s powers. Identifying the primary genres of presidential oratory, Campbell and Jamieson add new analyses of signing statements and national eulogies to their explorations of inaugural addresses, veto messages, and war rhetoric, among other types. They explain that in some of these genres, such as farewell addresses intended to leave an individual legacy, the president acts alone; in others, such as State of the Union speeches that urge a legislative agenda, the executive solicits reaction from the other branches. Updating their coverage through the current administration, the authors contend that many of these rhetorical acts extend over time: George W. Bush’s post-September 11 statements, for example, culminated in a speech at the National Cathedral and became a touchstone for his subsequent address to Congress. For two centuries, presidential discourse has both succeeded brilliantly and failed miserably at satisfying the demands of audience, occasion, and institution—and in the process, it has increased and depleted political capital by enhancing presidential authority or ceding it to the other branches. Illuminating the reasons behind each outcome, Campbell and Jamieson draw an authoritative picture of how presidents have used rhetoric to shape the presidency—and how they continue to re-create it.

divFinds that presidents are responsive to the public in selecting issues to focus on, but pay less attention to public opinion when making a policy /DIV

This book aims at gauging whether the nature of US foreign policy decision-making has changed after the Cold War as radically as a large body of literature seems to suggest, and develops a new framework to interpret presidential decision-making in foreign policy. It locates the study of risk in US foreign policy in a wider intellectual landscape that draws on contemporary debates in historiography, international relations and Presidential studies. Based on developments in the health and environment literature, the book identifies the President as the ultimate risk-manager, demonstrating how a President is called to perform a delicate balancing act between risks on the domestic/political side and risks on the strategic/international side. Every decision represents a ‘risk vs. risk trade-off,’ in which the management of one ‘target risk’ leads to the development ‘countervailing risks.’ The book applies this framework to the study three major crises in US foreign policy: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995. Each case-study results from substantial archival research and over twenty interviews with policymakers and academics, including former President Jimmy Carter and former Senator Bob Dole. This book is ideal for postgraduate researchers and academics in US foreign policy, foreign policy decision-making and the US Presidency as well as Departments and Institutes dealing with the study of risk in the social sciences. The case studies will also be of great use to undergraduate students.

This inside account of decision making in the White House describes the organizational challenges the President faces. The Economic Policy Board was one of the most systematic and sustained attempts to organize advice for the President in recent decades. The author examines the Board's deliberations over three controversial policy issues, drawing on scores of interviews with cabinet officials and career civil servants.

The newest installment in a quadrennial series that now spans five presidential elections, this book presents a broad overview of the presidential nomination process and showcases some of the most interesting work now being done on the politics of presidential selection. Written by leading experts, including a former presidential candidate, The Making of Presidential Candidates 2012 covers a wide selection of topics, including the Tea Party, digital media campaigns, how television covers the nomination process, election forecasting, and campaign finance. The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2012 is valuable for students, specialists, and all readers with an interest in the ever-evolving presidential nomination process and American elections.

Annotation This is the third in a series of books about the United States presidential nomination process and shares the same goals as its predecessors, and . Mayer (political science, Northeastern U.) presents nine papers exploring significant components of the nomination process, including financing, incumbency, polling, and the role of organized labor. The only non-academic contributing to the proceedings is an editor , who provides a discussion of the role of the press. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

A political junkie’s guide to the 2020 presidential race Based on original analysis from leading experts on presidential elections, Making of the Presidential Candidates 2020 describes all of the systematic aspects of the nomination campaign today: party rules, fundraising, media attention, voter coalitions, prospects for female candidates, and more. The contributors carefully consider the nature of modern political parties and the ways that expanded parties affect the dynamics of the campaign. The analysis is current up to the 2016 election, including a thorough examination of the most fascinating candidate of recent times: Donald Trump. The only authoritative book on the all-important nominating process, Making of the Presidential Candidates 2020 will be valuable for college courses at all levels as well as practitioners and political junkies who want to understand the fundamental forces that shape nomination campaigns in the modern era.

This book tells the inside story of Europe's first presidential campaign, the candidates, how they were chosen, the campaign trail, the TV debates and the tense negotiations which followed. It explains what led to this new way of choosing the Commission president and what it means for the future of the EU.