I. Deliberation v. Decisiveness: Comparing Management Styles
The course of a presidency is shaped by decisions made before inauguration day. The choices a president-elect makes when staffing their White House determines how they will use the precious time they will spend in the Oval Office. The management style of a president is a function of the president’s personality with consequences for the future of the country. George W. Bush and Barack Obama are different men who constructed for themselves distinctly different White Houses, each with their own priorities, strengths, and weaknesses.
George W. Bush prided himself on his decisiveness. Bush’s management style was structured around a desire to preserve the time of the president and produce swift action. Bush’s management style was a product of his past experiences as a former governor of Texas and business executive and his business school education. His life experiences had taught him to delegate and trust the abilities of his immediate subordinates. (Allen & Broder, 2004) Joe Allbaugh, a top aide and 2000 campaign director, described Bush as the “best one-minute manager” and a “fantastic delegator.” (Public Broadcasting Service, 2004) President Bush once described his own decision making style by stating “I’m not a textbook player. I am a gut player.” (Pfiffner 2011, 249) This preference was reflected in the way his White House organized his access to information.
The Bush White House, while not built around a
As a whole, placing Trump and Biden in political time explains how the changing conditions of their political landscapes are more or less conducive to fundamental political change, disruption, or preservation of an existing order. Before locating Trump and Biden in political time, it is essential to establish a foundation for understanding Skowronek’s political time and the leadership categories that shape it. Political time focuses on attention to the structure of the political environment a president inherits upon taking office. Adopting a structural analysis, Skowronek gives priority to the durable features of the political environment over the durable personality traits a president possesses. He argues that all presidents possess a unique ambition to drive change, so it is when that ambition aligns with circumstance that a president can secure a new alignment in politics.
This book is a bold work by George C. Edwards in which he shares his views of the political system in the US and how it has evolved over time. He has touched almost every president since the 1930s and brought to light some interesting details about how presidents have followed patterns and used their own style of actions to meet their unique objectives. The book describes in detail the attitudes of presidents and reflects his views on presidency. For instance, he has expressed three premises about presidential leadership: public support is used as a social resource by president, presidents must take interest in the problems of the people in order to actually garner support rather than just delivering speeches, and the public can be mobilized successfully by permanent campaigns.
Certain presidents, especially late-regime affiliates like Trump, are forced towards this point of departure by the conglomeration of different problems that festered long before their tenure. As a result, these presidents severe from the “standard formulas and priorities set in the old agenda,” but in the process
Everyone’s views of the president are different. A portion of people could hate the president, like him, or would not care about him; it all depends on their views they carry towards the president. Which include the way the president chooses to handle, or throw away ideas of the public. In order for the public to prosper, the president must be able to help. By fully understanding their views and opinions to help them prosper, he will allow for the public to continue growing. However, if the president would continue to do the same things, the growth of America’s society could decrease, which cause cataclysmic effects from the lack of effort towards America from the president.
The modern presidency has in a sense become a double-edged sword in that presidents have become beneficiaries of anything positive that can be attributed to government, but also can be blamed for anything bad occurring in society. Quite simply, the modern president has become the center of our political system (The Modern Presidency, 2004). The men who have dealt with this double-edged sword known as the modern presidency have often walked a very fine line between effectiveness and ineffectiveness, but all have attempted to use their power in one way or another.
As Howell states in his opening line “what do we expect of our president? The answer is at once obvious and unbelievable: everything” (1, Howell). The President is the elected head of the United States government this position grants them with both authority and power. However the authority and power that come from this are two vastly different things. Presidential power is as Neustadt defines the power to persuade with the effect of creating legislation, where as presidential authority is the formal and figurative duties granted in the constitution. Presidential power is akin to what specific action is chosen, and presidential authority are the perceivable routes of action. Presidential authority acts as the base for presidential power. Authority is determined by political culture and constitutional principles of limited government. The legitimacy for the President’s authority is found in the constitution. The legitimacy of the constitution’s authority rests in the consent of the governed. This document both expands and limits presidential authority which in turn directly affects presidential power. The constitution frames the president to be a leader and grants specific procedural actions. This has formed a public expectation of the president as a final solution to all problems. The result of expanding presidential authority to such vast areas has resulted in expectations that are unattainable for any president. In turn the expansion of presidential authority has
George W. Bush, the 43 President of The United States of America, is one of the greatest leaders we have ever seen. In this essay I will describe why, I feel that Mr. Bush is a highly qualified leader for this country. Mr. Bush is highly educated, has the aptitude for being the President and is a great communicator. Mr. Bush is also a person of strong constitution or stability, extremely motivated and cooperative. The later being extremely important when one considers the close ratio of Democrats to Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate. Due to his high level of leadership potential I am of the opinion the US is currently being lead by one of the most capable and qualified candidates of recent memory.
In late 1950s, Richard Neustadt wrote Presidential Power and the Modern President, in which he explained that presidential power is the power to persuade. Central motivation of this book was to advice new president with their strategic problem of power and so forth. According to Neustadt, there are three significant areas that a president must be aware of and nurture while in the Whitehouse; power to persuade, president’s
9/11 and Hurricane Katrina were catalysts for the analysis of presidential leadership and management within the Bush Administration. This analysis brought about great criticism and failures of the United States governments sluggish response to act during a time of crisis. There are federal government policies in places for events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. To gain a clear understanding of presidential leadership, one must analyze how a president should lead, govern federal administrators, manage the media, address federal-state affairs, set the limitations of military-civil affairs, and outline their policy plans (Sylves 2006).
My leadership style is problem solver; this leadership style offers me the opportunity to utilize the knowledge and experience of my followers. I believe that I am more of this leadership style because I tend to accept input from group members when making decisions and solving problems. I do this because I feel that everyone in the group have something tangible to contribute to the group, and sometimes they might have access to key information that can help in my decision making. I take the information and put them together to use in reaching a decision, because I know that I will have the final say as the leader of the group. I believe that the group is put together
The President’s level of influence far surpasses that of other countries executive leaders. This individual is watched far and wide by billions of people daily. How many can say that their executive leader is as important to the global dynamic as the President of the United States? Although the President’s global significance is a hallmark of the job, his main level of scrutiny and responsibilities fall with the citizens in
With the Role of the President and making hard decisions while in office, we look at Presidents through the past and present and the difficult decisions they’ve had to make either during times in the White house. Presidents should always, thank of their actions and how they’re going to affect not just present day, but future generations. Presidents should always consider the lasting impactions of their actions, the way their information is handled we’ve seen Presidents make some good points and bad points, for example, we’ve seen President John F. Kennedy consider the lasting implications and what was best for the country during the Cuban missile crisis. We’ve also seen the bad side during the Bush Administration, Bush not having a clear view of how horrible the nature of the Iraq war and the implications that followed.
Students hid their faces and scurried off into the crevices of the halls when they saw him coming from the opposite side of campus. His obese physique similar to the Michelin Man gave students adequate time to find cover or risk being publicly humiliated. He brought with himself a grave sense of oppression. We called him “Big Smith” because of his limitless silhouette and bombastic temperament that could easily scare the toupee off of Donald Trump’s head.
As the U.S. presidential election draws to a close, less and less time is available for Americans to contemplate on which of the candidates is the most apt for the highest office in the land. Many will look to America’s past to determine whether the leadership and mannerisms of previous admired presidents are reflected in the actions of the candidates. One of the major candidates, Republican nominee Donald Trump, has repeatedly been likened as the “new Reagan” by major politicians such as Nigel Farage for his powerful right-wing policies. However, even a basic observation of his track record and statements will reveal that he lies like Nixon and is as spiteful as Andrew Jackson. In fact, he is almost the antithesis personality-wise to Reagan, a recent respected President, who at least knew how to
There is a mind-boggling question that has been floating around the American people here lately. And the question is, “What are the qualifications to construct a good political leader?” When you think about this, other careers such as law enforcement, health professionals, educators, and even city transit drivers all have a more clear-cut job depiction on how to be successful in that career, but when it comes to the criteria for political leadership, one will find a vague description on how and what to do, and the various loop holes in certain areas in politics. So this creates an even more challenging task for people to define if a political leader is good or bad; and could possibly create a divide across the nation.