Essay about The Modern Presidency:an Evolution

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.

In his study The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power after Watergate, Andrew Rudalevige examines the American presidency and how it has changed over time. First off what is an Imperial Presidency? An imperial presidency is a term that was coined around the 1960s by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. to describe the modern presidency of the United States. In the beginning of the book Rudalevige states, “Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. had affixed an enduring adjective to the Nixon Presidency: Imperial. This didn’t mean that the president literally had become emperor but suggested the occupant in office exercised more absolute power.”

While some would argue that the framers of the Constitution did enough to limit the power of the President because of actions carried out by the leaders of the past, the more valid perspective is that these actions were made based on personal goals, and that judgements on these actions are justified based on opinions—not facts. From this, it can be concluded that the authors of The Constitution of the United States have placed enough rules, regulations, and checks to successfully limit the power of the President. In this modern American world, social and governmental society is continuously developing and evolving over time; important decisions that drive this evolution are made everyday by people of great importance. One of these important

The President of the United States is under continual scrutiny, and for good reason. Often times Presidents are unable to garner a high approval rating from the public because either they are not able to influence government enough, or in some cases exert too much power over the government. Very few Presidents have been considered successful in modern times and often when Presidents first enter office they are shocked at the difficulty which influencing government entails. There are many possible changes that could be made in order to increase effectiveness. These changes concern the election progress, the transactional relationship between the President and Congress, the term structure and the nomination process. These changes are especially

The powers of the president have long been debated in our country, starting at the founding and continuing to now. How much power should the president be given? How much is too much power? All these questions have been explored numerous times by numerous people. In our Constitution, the President is given expressed, inherent, and delegated powers. These powers have been used by Presidents in many different ways. The study of the way Presidents use these powers is explored in the book by Richard Neustadt: “Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan”. Neustadt discusses how modern presidents wield

Many would agree that being the President of the United States of America is not only one of the toughest positions one can hold; it is also the most nerve-wracking position one can have. Simultaneously, the president has many responsibilities, and often receive the blame for anything that occurs during their term. History always offer insights into a president’s second term. If there is one thing we know, we know that second presidential terms habitually do not turn out pleasant. The reason being is that most second-term presidents suffer from a lethal infection known as the “second-term curse” which is the result of scandals, financial declines, ostracized wars, and many other supplementary hitches. Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush are examples of some presidents who faced that curse.

Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, rates and describes the presidents by their leadership and personal traits while serving as President. This book also examines and gives light to the lives of the presidents before taking office. This book is comprised of the opinions of several different authors, and gives readers understanding in regards to what makes each president excellent, terrible, or in-between according to their rating system.

On the Inauguration Day of every president of the United States of America, the country looks to one man to govern the nation to prosperity. A great trial begins for the new president that will judge his ability to lead and manage a country. How he performs will determine the legacy he will leave behind. The imperative skill of strong leadership, particularly in times of tension and disaster, is needed in order to make smart decisions and compromises for the good of the nation. Sound leadership provided by a president gives the people of the country a figure to guide them through trying times. When analyzing presidencies, it is also important to assess the domestic accomplishments that took place during that particular president’s term(s), that is, the political, economic, and social changes pertaining to the United States that positively impacted the people and upheld the values within the constitution. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) and George W. Bush Jr. (2001-2009), although serving as president more than a century apart, have both left legacies that transcend history. Overall, Bush has had more influence on the United States when assessing his domestic, economic, and foreign actions; however, a majority of these decisions have had a negative impact on the prosperity of the US. Hayes had more influence on minority groups, specifically African Americans and Native Americans, but the rights of these two groups were not protected. Hayes was less influential regarding

The modern presidency of the United States has become a powerful institution. Most if not all the people in the United States know who the president is. The president has become a celebrity of sorts throughout history, and with that status rising the president have become more powerful. However, as the old saying goes, with the great power comes great responsibility.

Looking back through the history of the United States, the president has always been expected to serve as a gleaming example of all the US embodies and wants to present to the rest of the world. While some men have definitely carried this heavy task better than others, some were helped or hindered by the international or domestic issues at the time. With catastrophic events like war, economic crisis, or even assassination altering many American’s view of past presidents, it becomes evident that some received these tasks as an advantage while others were carried down by their negative effects. To clarify, examining the most adored and despised of presidents brings to light a number of significant details that helped to propel them to fame or

In this paper we will compare the formal and informal powers if the President and we will explore how and why the Presidential powers have increased over time. The history of the Presidency is an account of aggrandizement; one envisions, today, a President with far reaching power, however, when looking at the Constitution alone we find a President with significant limits. Is the President of the United States the most powerful person in the world or merely a helpless giant?

The modern American presidency is defined as the presidency’s transition to the center of American governance. Distinct from typically passive and isolated presidencies during the 18th and 19th centuries, the modern American presidency of the mid-20th century set the use of power and popularity as precedence. The transition to the modern presidency can be understood through the development of the presidency’s institutional, international, and perceptual identity. In this essay, I will argue that the increasing role of independent agencies and the White House staff that spearheaded executive policymaking led to a significant institutional change to the presidency. I will also argue America’s expanding international function in response to globalization placed the presidency, responsible for foreign policy, in a newly found position to exercise power. Finally, I will argue that the public perception of the presidency as a “living reality” (Reedy, p. 10) shifted it from a peripheral political entity to one at the center of policy discussion and leadership. In this essay, I will present examples of the modern presidency in the attributes of administrations from Franklin D. Roosevelt through John F. Kennedy, as well as evaluate scholarly models that contextualize how attributes of these administrations shaped the modern presidency, such as John Burke’s Institutional Presidency, Aaron Wildavsky’s Two Presidencies, and George Reedy’s American Monarchy.

Political time deals with the years between major shifts in the ideological trajectory the United States undertakes; it exemplifies the presidency as the means to progress the political movement. Political time is not infinite; it is reset when the existing ideological trajectory is replaced by another. For example, the article discussed President Ronald Reagan as the executive that reset political time from the Democratic New Deal to a more conservative movement. The president of the United States plays an important role in political time. “Those operating on political time see the president as an agent of change poised to break through the knot of interests and institutions that block concerted action on the agenda

It has its charm and utility. A largely materialistic society like ours has a natural propensity to hero worship, and the image of a presidential family is not a bad way of satisfying it. The presidency in a way provides a sort of substitute or ersatz religion. One could almost be forgiven for thinking the president practically ruled through divine right. Today, with the imperial presidency creeping into legislative affairs via pens and phones, Congress struggles to remind presidents that Congress does not advise but rather legislates. However, in an era where the president is hailed as ‘The Anointed One’, he is practically God’s viceroy, and, as such, is not susceptible to interference by mortal men. When a president rules over the hearts of men, it is inevitable that the focus of interest should be transferred from the office to the

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.