A comprehensive overview of the president's policy-making role and the way this role structures the president's interaction with other institutions of government. The book concludes with a discussion of the issues of accountability and policy leadership.

The Art of Policymaking: Tools, Techniques and Processes in the Modern Executive Branch, Second Edition is a practical introduction to the specific tools, techniques, and processes used to create policy in the executive branch of the U.S. government. George E. Shambaugh, IV and Paul Weinstein, Jr. explain how government officials craft policy, manage the policymaking process, and communicate those policies to stakeholders and the public at large. The authors draw on both their academic and government experience to provide real-world advice on writing memos, preparing polling questions, and navigating the clearance process. An abundance of case studies show how actual policies are developed and how and why policies and processes differ across administrations. Practice scenarios allow students to apply the tools and techniques they have learned by working through both domestic and foreign policy situations.

Annotation. American presidents enter office ready to enact a policy-making agenda that will satisfy partisan interests and facilitate reelection to a second term. Economic circumstances, however, may catch presidents in a vicious cycle of economic growth and inflation versus recession and unemployment. Faced with responsibility for the nation's economic health, presidents are often forced to make tradeoffs between pursuing political objectives and stabilizing the economy. Vicious Cycle provides a theoretical framework for explaining how presidents pursue partisan and electoral objectives in office while simultaneously managing the nation's economy. With an approach that bridges several literatures in presidential studies and political economy, Constantine J. Spiliotes develops an econometric model of postwar presidential decision making in the American political economy and examines its relationship to economic decision making in four presidencies. These extensively documented case studies -- of presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, Carter, and Reagan -- offer variation across several analytic dimensions: temporal, partisan, electoral, and institutional. Spiliotes concludes that tradeoffs between political objectives and institutional responsibility are driven by a transformation in the nature of the American presidency, from an office in which decision making is anchored in partisan accountability to one constrained by the chief executive's institutional mission. Spiliotes's work contributes to a fuller understanding of the presidency and political economy and the methodologies that elucidate them.

Can presidents hope to be effective in policy making when Congress is ruled by the other party? Political scientist Richard Conley brings to this crucial discussion a fresh perspective. He argues persuasively that the conditions of divided government have changed in recent years, and he applies a rigorous methodology that allows the testing of a number of important assumptions about party control of the legislative process and the role of the president. Conley demonstrates that recent administrations have faced a very different playing field than those in the earlier post-war years because of such critical developments in electoral politics as decreasing presidential coattails and the lack of presidential popularity in opposition members’ districts. Moreover, he identifies several changes in the institutional setting in Congress that have affected both the legislative success rates of presidents’ programs and the strategies presidents pursue. These institutional factors include more assertive legislative majorities, changes in leadership structure, and increased party cohesion in voting. Conley uses both case studies and sophisticated time-series regression analyses to examine the floor success of presidential initiatives, the strategies presidents use in working with the legislature, and the use of veto power to achieve presidential aims. Scholars of the presidency and those interested in the larger American political process will find in this book both food for thought and a model of analytic sophistication.

The belief that U.S. presidents' legislative policy formation has centralized over time, shifting inexorably out of the executive departments and into the White House, is shared by many who have studied the American presidency. Andrew Rudalevige argues that such a linear trend is neither at all certain nor necessary for policy promotion. In Managing the President's Program, he presents a far more complex and interesting picture of the use of presidential staff. Drawing on transaction cost theory, Rudalevige constructs a framework of "contingent centralization" to predict when presidents will use White House and/or departmental staff resources for policy formulation. He backs his assertions through an unprecedented quantitative analysis of a new data set of policy proposals covering almost fifty years of the postwar era from Truman to Clinton. Rudalevige finds that presidents are not bound by a relentless compulsion to centralize but follow a more subtle strategy of staff allocation that makes efficient use of limited bargaining resources. New items and, for example, those spanning agency jurisdictions, are most likely to be centralized; complex items follow a mixed process. The availability of expertise outside the White House diminishes centralization. However, while centralization is a management strategy appropriate for engaging the wider executive branch, it can imperil an item's fate in Congress. Thus, as this well-written book makes plain, presidential leadership hinges on hard choices as presidents seek to simultaneously manage the executive branch and attain legislative success.

Bill Clinton's administration was filled with new policies and achievements for the nation's future, but those achievements were easily overshadowed by personal flaws and scandal. Despite his personal problems, Clinton captured the American public and served two terms as one of our more memorable presidents. This comprehensive bibliography on Clinton will provide students with information from his childhood, his pre-presidential career, presidency (including assessments of it) and the beginning of his post-presidential life. Key access points to this information are provided in the Table of Contents and detailed author and subject indexes. Also included, is an invited essay providing an overview of the Clinton presidency and an extensive chronology of significant events.

With engaging, new contributions from major figures in the field, 'The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency' provides the key point of reference for anyone working in American politics today.

The third edition of New Directions in the American Presidency provides important updates on all topics throughout the text, including new and relevant literature across the subfield of presidency studies within political science. Significant changes have occurred within the political environment since the publication of the second edition. Many scholars refer to the Trump presidency as a "disruption" to the political order, and each chapter will assess the lessons and legacies of the Trump years and analyze how the Biden presidency is faring in the return to a more "traditional" style of presidential leadership. New to the Third Edition: Updated chapter on the 2020 presidential campaign and aftermath Assessment of the Trump years: Presidential powers and management of executive branch, use of social media, relationship with Congress, relationship with political parties, public opinion, domestic and foreign policy, Supreme Court appointments Two new chapters—unitary powers, and intersectionality and the presidency

The Evolution of Presidential Polling is a book about presidential power and autonomy. Since FDR, virtually all presidents have employed private polls in some capacity. This book attempts to explain how presidential polling evolved from a rarely conducted secretive enterprise, to a commonplace event that is now considered an integral part of the presidency. I contend that because presidents do not trust institutions such as Congress, the media and political parties--all of which also gauge public opinion--they opt to gain autonomy from these institutions by conducting private polls to be read and interpreted solely for themselves.

Now in a thoroughly revised third edition, Public Policy: Preferences and Outcomes is designed to help students enrolled in a public policy course discuss policy issues and understand the ways in which public policy is grounded in normative theory. This approachable book examines the role of political theory in the governance process and the effect of public opinion on policy priorities and government. It introduces students to the tools of policy analysis and the most up to date policy theories in conceptualizing public policy in several major policy areas. New to this edition: A thoroughly revised and updated chapter on public policy models, including new sections on the importance of science, pluralism, institutional analysis and development, multiple streams, the advocacy coalition framework, the punctuated equilibrium framework, policy diffusion, and the constructivist approach. New sections on health policy, welfare economics and the public good, the nuclear arms race, the War on Terrorism, the Quadrennial Defense Review, contemporary policing techniques and issues, and renewable energy. Restructured and rewritten sections on social policy and equality that includes sections on employment, LGBTQ rights and same sex marriage, the legalization of marijuana, and income inequality. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, and offering instructors a variety of ways to tailor the book to their classroom setting and course priorities, Public Policy: Preferences and Outcomes, 3e is a highly flexible and effective teaching resource for introductory public policy courses at the undergraduate level and also serves as an ideal refresher book for students at the graduate level.