How American Presidents Succeed And Why They Fail

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Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again

Author : Elaine C. Kamarck
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815727798
Total Pages : 99 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again by : Elaine C. Kamarck

Download or read book Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again written by Elaine C. Kamarck and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Failure should not be an option in the presidency, but for too long it has been the norm. From the botched attempt to rescue the U.S. diplomats held hostage by Iran in 1980 under President Jimmy Carter and the missed intelligence on Al Qaeda before 9-11 under George W. Bush to, most recently, the computer meltdown that marked the arrival of health care reform under Barack Obama, the American presidency has been a profile in failure. In Why Presidents Fail and How They Can Succeed Again, Elaine Kamarck surveys these and other recent presidential failures to understand why Americans have lost faith in their leaders—and how they can get it back. Kamarck argues that presidents today spend too much time talking and not enough time governing, and that they have allowed themselves to become more and more distant from the federal bureaucracy that is supposed to implement policy. After decades of "imperial" and "rhetorical" presidencies, we are in need of a "managerial" president. This White House insider and former Harvard academic explains the difficulties of governing in our modern political landscape, and offers examples and recommendations of how our next president can not only recreate faith in leadership but also run a competent, successful administration.

How American Presidents Succeed and why They Fail

Author : John J. Broesamle
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780773442764
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (427 download)

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Book Synopsis How American Presidents Succeed and why They Fail by : John J. Broesamle

Download or read book How American Presidents Succeed and why They Fail written by John J. Broesamle and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With just two exceptions - Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama - all of our recent presidents have proved unsuccessful or mediocre as leaders. This is one reason why Washington has become more dysfunctional than at any time in over a century. This book identifies the core factors that spell success, mediocrity, or outright failure in the White House.

Why Presidents Fail

Author : Richard M. Pious
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0742562859
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (425 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Presidents Fail by : Richard M. Pious

Download or read book Why Presidents Fail written by Richard M. Pious and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Presidents Fail takes a fresh look at cases that became defining events in presidencies from Dwight D. Eisenhower through George W. Bush and uses these cases to draw generalizations about presidential power, authority, rationality, and legitimacy. Rather than assigning blame for past failures, this book focuses on why presidents fail and how future presidents might avoid making these same disastrous mistakes.

Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change

Author : Michael Genovese
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351295586
Total Pages : 110 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (512 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change by : Michael Genovese

Download or read book Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change written by Michael Genovese and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American public hungers for a heroic leader. From John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, every American president has left office either under a cloud or as a failed leader. Michael A. Genovese argues that presidents are set up for failure; it is not specific presidents but the presidency itself that is the problem. The presidency was designed to prevent tyranny through a system of separation of powers that inhibits presidents from exercising sufficient power to meet the demands and expectations that developed over time. Each new president dreams of success, only to be crushed by the paralytic weight of vetoes and roadblocks. As they fail to meet expectations, Americans turn on them, making their already precarious position much worse. Given the perilous nature of the office, Genovese examines the skills required to achieve success and the roles of power and persuasion. He also examines how globalization and the rapid pace of change contribute to the decline of presidential power. This accessible synthesis of scholarship is geared toward an audience that is hungry to unravel the dilemmas of presidential leadership. Students of the presidency will find it insightful; general readers will find it illuminating.

Where They Stand

Author : Robert W. Merry
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 145162543X
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis Where They Stand by : Robert W. Merry

Download or read book Where They Stand written by Robert W. Merry and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk, A Country of Vast Designs, offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing “Rating the Presidents,” by pitching historians’ views and subsequent experts’ polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents’ own contemporaries. Merry posits that presidents rise and fall based on performance, as judged by the electorate. Thus, he explores the presidency by comparing the judgments of historians with how the voters saw things. Was the president reelected? If so, did his party hold office in the next election? Where They Stand examines the chief executives Merry calls “Men of Destiny,’’ those who set the country toward new directions. There are six of them, including the three nearly always at the top of all academic polls—Lincoln, Washington, and FDR. He describes the “Split-Decision Presidents’’ (including Wilson and Nixon)—successful in their first terms and reelected; less successful in their second terms and succeeded by the opposition party. He describes the “Near Greats’’ (Jefferson, Jackson, Polk, TR, Truman), the “War Presidents’’ (Madison, McKinley, Lyndon Johnson), the flat-out failures (Buchanan, Pierce), and those whose standing has fluctuated (Grant, Cleveland, Eisenhower). This voyage through our history provides a probing and provocative analysis of how presidential politics works and how the country sets its course. Where They Stand invites readers to pitch their opinions against the voters of old, the historians, the pollsters—and against the author himself. In this year of raucous presidential politics, Where They Stand will provide a context for the unfolding campaign drama.

Bad Presidents

Author : P. Abbott
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137306599
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (373 download)

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Book Synopsis Bad Presidents by : P. Abbott

Download or read book Bad Presidents written by P. Abbott and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-03-20 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bad Presidents seeks to interpret the meaning of presidential 'badness' by investigating the ways in which eleven presidents were 'bad.' The author brings a unique, and often amusing perspective on the idea of the presidency, and begins a new conversation about the definition of presidential success and failure.

The Image Is Everything Presidency

Author : Gilbert St. Clair
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429964978
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis The Image Is Everything Presidency by : Gilbert St. Clair

Download or read book The Image Is Everything Presidency written by Gilbert St. Clair and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Image is everything. Today, our television and movie stars, our athletes, and our politicians carefully craft images for public consumption. Even our country's Executive Chief is not immune to a bit of image manipulation. If presidents can not always actually satisfy the public's excessive, contradictory, and unrealistic expectations, they can at least present a compelling image of presidential leadership and success. When it comes to the modern presidency, tennis star Andre Agassi was correct, ?Image is everything.?Image creation is a serious business with critically important implications for the success of any politician. But presidents must be careful in deciding how they craft the ways in which we perceive them. If they are to succeed, presidents must present an appropriate image of leadership to the American people; an image that is appropriate for the particular needs of the time when the president governs and is appropriate to the personality of that president. Their ultimate goal is to convince the public that they are actually providing leadership, even if in reality they have only a limited ability to effect outcomes.This book examines the way American presidents in the media age have shaped their public personas as a means of cultivating and advancing their political and ideological agendas. Images play an important role in the perceived success or failure of our presidents. Since public expectations are most often aimed directly at the White House and its central occupant, it is more important than ever that a president control his image, as well as presenting the right image to the American public. Reality thus becomes secondary and image is everything.

The Impossible Presidency

Author : Jeremi Suri
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465093906
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Impossible Presidency by : Jeremi Suri

Download or read book The Impossible Presidency written by Jeremi Suri and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new history of the American presidency, arguing that the successful presidents of the past created unrealistic expectations for every president since JFK, with enormously problematic implications for American politics In The Impossible Presidency, celebrated historian Jeremi Suri charts the rise and fall of the American presidency, from the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argues that the presidency is a victim of its own success-the vastness of the job makes it almost impossible to fulfill the expectations placed upon it. As managers of the world's largest economy and military, contemporary presidents must react to a truly globalized world in a twenty-four-hour news cycle. There is little room left for bold vision. Suri traces America's disenchantment with our recent presidents to the inevitable mismatch between presidential promises and the structural limitations of the office. A masterful reassessment of presidential history, this book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand America's fraught political climate.

Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy

Author : Ionut Popescu
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421423774
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

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Book Synopsis Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy by : Ionut Popescu

Download or read book Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy written by Ionut Popescu and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ionut Popescu explores how successful American grand strategy comes about. For most experts in the academic world of political science and in the Washington policymaking community, the answer lies in the design and implementation of a farsighted strategic plan or framework. The role of such a Grand Design is to guide the president's foreign policy actions and resource allocation decisions in the pursuit of specific long-term objectives. The alternative to following a Grand Design is usually said to consist of ad-hoc, incoherent, and ultimately unsuccessful foreign policy decision-making. But what if successful grand strategies are sometimes formed through an emergent process of learning and adaptation, instead of being the product of strategic planning and farsighted designs? Popescu argues that the Emergent Strategy model, adapted from the business strategy literature, explains some of the traditional success stories and failures of American grand strategy better than the prevalent Grand Design model. These findings suggest the need to shift the focus of policymakers away from planning for long-term objectives and toward short- and medium-term incremental learning and adaptation. Based on this new theoretical understanding of successful grand strategy being formed by either Design or Emergent elements depending on the circumstances, the book also offers a framework to help policymakers and strategic planners choose the right model and tools based on the level of uncertainty they face in the external environment"--

American Heritage Illustrated History of the Presidents

Author : Michael R. Beschloss
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 536 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis American Heritage Illustrated History of the Presidents by : Michael R. Beschloss

Download or read book American Heritage Illustrated History of the Presidents written by Michael R. Beschloss and published by Crown. This book was released on 2000 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day our lives are affected by what the American president does. But there are some things we cannot know about presidents until many years after they leave office -- what really went on behind the scenes and how great their leadership was. That is the mission of this book. American Heritage is known and trusted for its standard-bearing single-volume histories. Its various editions on the American Civil War and World War II, edited by such distinguished scholars as James McPherson and Stephen Ambrose, are recognized as classics and have together sold more than a million copies. The American Heritage(R) Illustrated History of the Presidents is newly available in a richly illustrated and completely revised edition, with the preeminent presidential historian Michael Beschloss as general editor. This new book offers fresh and penetrating portraits of all forty-two presidencies, as rendered by some of America's most distinguished scholars. From George Washington's reluctant oath-taking through Bill Clinton's turbulent leadership, we view forty-one ambitious and fallible men through the new lens of the twenty-first century. Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? What do we know now that we could not have known at the time? The American Heritage(R) Illustrated History of the Presidents offers a biographical profile of each man and a full account of the issues and events that shaped each presidency, with pathbreaking new verdicts on the modern presidents -- Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. In the tradition of other American Heritage volumes, the book will serve as an indispensable reference guide for many years to come, for both seasoned observers andstudents just learning about the presidency. American Heritage is a trademark of American Heritage Inc. Its use is pursuant to a license agreement.

The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction

Author : Gil Troy
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199740901
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (49 download)

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Book Synopsis The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by : Gil Troy

Download or read book The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction written by Gil Troy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-30 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "They called it the Reagan revolution," Ronald Reagan noted in his Farewell Address. "Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense." Nearly two decades after that 1989 speech, debate continues to rage over just how revolutionary those Reagan years were. The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction identifies and tackles some of the controversies and historical mysteries that continue to swirl around Reagan and his legacy, while providing an illuminating look at some of the era's defining personalities, ideas, and accomplishments. Gil Troy, a well-known historian who is a frequent commentator on contemporary politics, sheds much light on the phenomenon known as the Reagan Revolution, situating the reception of Reagan's actions within the contemporary liberal and conservative political scene. While most conservatives refuse to countenance any criticism of their hero, an articulate minority laments that he did not go far enough. And while some liberals continue to mourn just how far he went in changing America, others continue to mock him as a disengaged, do-nothing dunce. Nevertheless, as Troy shows, two and a half decades after Reagan's 1981 inauguration, his legacy continues to shape American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush modeled much of their presidential leadership styles on Reagan's example, while many of the debates of the '80s about the budget, tax cutting, defense-spending, and American values still rage. Love him or hate him, Ronald Reagan remains the most influential president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, and one of the most controversial. This marvelous book places the Reagan Revolution in the broader context of postwar politics, highlighting the legacies of these years on subsequent presidents and on American life today. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Accidental Presidents

Author : Jared Cohen
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501109839
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Accidental Presidents by : Jared Cohen

Download or read book Accidental Presidents written by Jared Cohen and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times bestselling “deep dive into the terms of eight former presidents is chock-full of political hijinks—and déjà vu” (Vanity Fair) and provides a fascinating look at the men who came to the office without being elected to it, showing how each affected the nation and world. The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. In one way or another they vastly changed our history. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR, Truman, Coolidge, and LBJ were re-elected. John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died 30 days into his term. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment. Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction. Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination; but he reformed the civil service. Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Harry Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president. Lyndon B. Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. He led the nation forward on Civil Rights but failed on Vietnam. Accidental Presidents shows that “history unfolds in death as well as in life” (The Wall Street Journal) and adds immeasurably to our understanding of the power and limits of the American presidency in critical times.

Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change

Author : Michael Genovese
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781351295604
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (956 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change by : Michael Genovese

Download or read book Presidential Leadership in an Age of Change written by Michael Genovese and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The American public hungers for a heroic leader. From John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, every American president has left office either under a cloud or as a failed leader. Michael A. Genovese argues that presidents are set up for failure; it is not specific presidents but the presidency itself that is the problem.The presidency was designed to prevent tyranny through a system of separation of powers that inhibits presidents from exercising sufficient power to meet the demands and expectations that developed over time. Each new president dreams of success, only to be crushed by the paralytic weight of vetoes and roadblocks. As they fail to meet expectations, Americans turn on them, making their already precarious position much worse. Given the perilous nature of the office, Genovese examines the skills required to achieve success and the roles of power and persuasion. He also examines how globalization and the rapid pace of change contribute to the decline of presidential power.This accessible synthesis of scholarship is geared toward an audience that is hungry to unravel the dilemmas of presidential leadership. Students of the presidency will find it insightful; general readers will find it illuminating."--Provided by publisher.

Presidencies Derailed

Author : Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
Publisher : Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN 13 : 1421419874
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidencies Derailed by : Stephen Joel Trachtenberg

Download or read book Presidencies Derailed written by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grady Bogue, organize, classify, and explain patterns of leadership failures, drawing on firsthand testimonies from "deraileduniversity presidents, sixteen case studies in four sectors of higher education, and reviews of the scholarly literature on leadership failures in the public and private sectors.

How to Get Rid of a President

Author : David Priess
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1541788214
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (417 download)

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Book Synopsis How to Get Rid of a President by : David Priess

Download or read book How to Get Rid of a President written by David Priess and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid political history of the schemes, plots, maneuvers, and conspiracies that have attempted -- successfully and not -- to remove unwanted presidents To limit executive power, the founding fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Even so, Americans have often resorted to more dramatic paths to disempower the chief executive. The American presidency has seen it all, from rejecting a sitting president's renomination bid and undermining their authority in office to the more drastic methods of impeachment, and, most brutal of all, assassination. How to Get Rid of a President showcases the political dark arts in action: a stew of election dramas, national tragedies, and presidential departures mixed with party intrigue, personal betrayal, and backroom shenanigans. This briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage proves that while the pomp and circumstance of presidential elections might draw more attention, the way that presidents are removed teaches us much more about our political order.

Presidential Leadership in Political Time

Author : Stephen Skowronek
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700629432
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidential Leadership in Political Time by : Stephen Skowronek

Download or read book Presidential Leadership in Political Time written by Stephen Skowronek and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this expanded third edition, renowned scholar Stephen Skowronek, addresses Donald J. Trump’s presidency. Skowronek’s insights have fundamentally altered our understanding of the American presidency. His “political time” thesis has been particularly influential, revealing how presidents reckon with the work of their predecessors, situate their power within recent political events, and assert their authority in the service of change. A classic widely used in courses on the presidency, Skowronek’s book has greatly expanded our understanding of and debates over the politics of leadership. It clarifies the typical political problems that presidents confront in political time, as well as the likely effects of their working through them, and considers contemporary innovations in our political system that bear on the leadership patterns from the more distant past. Drawing out parallels in the politics of leadership between Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt and between James Polk and John Kennedy, it develops a new and revealing perspective on the presidential leadership of Clinton, Bush, Obama, and now Trump. In this third edition Skowronek carefully examines the impact of recent developments in government and politics on traditional leadership postures and their enactment, given the current divided state of the American polity, the impact of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, of a more disciplined and homogeneous Republican party, of conservative advocacy of the “unitary theory” of the executive, and of progressive disillusionment with the presidency as an institution. A provocative review of presidential history, Skowronek’s book brims with fresh insights and opens a window on the institution of the executive office and the workings of the American political system as a whole. Intellectually satisfying for scholars, it also provides an accessible volume for students and general readers interested in the American presidency.

Presidents of War

Author : Michael Beschloss
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307409619
Total Pages : 754 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidents of War by : Michael Beschloss

Download or read book Presidents of War written by Michael Beschloss and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a preeminent presidential historian comes a “superb and important” (The New York Times Book Review) saga of America’s wartime chief executives “Fascinating and heartbreaking . . . timely . . . Beschloss’s broad scope lets you draw important crosscutting lessons about presidential leadership.”—Bill Gates Widely acclaimed and ten years in the making, Michael Beschloss’s Presidents of War is an intimate and irresistibly readable chronicle of the Chief Executives who took the United States into conflict and mobilized it for victory. From the War of 1812 to Vietnam, we see these leaders considering the difficult decision to send hundreds of thousands of Americans to their deaths; struggling with Congress, the courts, the press, and antiwar protesters; seeking comfort from their spouses and friends; and dropping to their knees in prayer. Through Beschloss’s interviews with surviving participants and findings in original letters and once-classified national security documents, we come to understand how these Presidents were able to withstand the pressures of war—or were broken by them. Presidents of War combines this sense of immediacy with the overarching context of two centuries of American history, traveling from the time of our Founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race. Praise for Presidents of War "A marvelous narrative. . . . As Beschloss explains, the greatest wartime presidents successfully leaven military action with moral concerns. . . . Beschloss’s writing is clean and concise, and he admirably draws upon new documents. Some of the more titillating tidbits in the book are in the footnotes. . . . There are fascinating nuggets on virtually every page of Presidents of War. It is a superb and important book, superbly rendered.”—Jay Winik, The New York Times Book Review "Sparkle and bite. . . . Valuable and engrossing study of how our chief executives have discharged the most significant of all their duties. . . . Excellent. . . . A fluent narrative that covers two centuries of national conflict.” —Richard Snow, The Wall Street Journal