How Presidents Test Reality

Author : John P. Burke,Fred L. Greenstein
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 1989-09-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781610440974

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How Presidents Test Reality by John P. Burke,Fred L. Greenstein Pdf

Just as famines and plagues can provide opportunities for medical research, the unhappy course of United States relations with Vietnam is a prime source of evidence for students of American political institutions. How Presidents Test Reality draws on the record of American decision making about Vietnam to explore the capacity of top government executives and their advisers to engage in effective reality testing. Authors Burke and Greenstein compare the Vietnam decisions of two presidents whose leadership styles and advisory systems diverged as sharply as any in the modern presidency. Faced with a common challenge—an incipient Communist take-over of Vietnam—presidents Eisenhower and Johnson engaged in intense debates with their aides and associates, some of whom favored intervention and some of whom opposed it. In the Dien Bien Phu Crisis of 1954, Eisenhower decided not to enter the conflict; in 1965, when it became evident that the regime in South Vietnam could not hold out much longer, Johnson intervened. How Presidents Test Reality uses declassified records and interviews with participants to assess the adequacy of each president’s use of advice and information. This important book advances our historical understanding of the American involvement in Vietnam and illuminates the preconditions of effective presidential leadership in the modern world. "An exceptionally thoughtful exercise in what ‘contemporary history’ ought to be. Illuminates the past in a way that suggests how we might deal with the present and the future." —John Lewis Gaddis "Burke and Greenstein have written what amounts to an owner's manual for operating the National Security Council....This is a book Reagan's people could have used and George Bush ought to read." —Bob Schieffer, The Washington Monthly

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : POLITICAL SCIENCE
ISBN : 1610440986

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How Presidents Test Reality by Anonim Pdf

Author : John P. Burke,Fred L. Greenstein
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
Page : 339 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1989-09-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0871541750

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How Presidents Test Reality by John P. Burke,Fred L. Greenstein Pdf

Just as famines and plagues can provide opportunities for medical research, the unhappy course of United States relations with Vietnam is a prime source of evidence for students of American political institutions. How Presidents Test Reality draws on the record of American decision making about Vietnam to explore the capacity of top government executives and their advisers to engage in effective reality testing. Authors Burke and Greenstein compare the Vietnam decisions of two presidents whose leadership styles and advisory systems diverged as sharply as any in the modern presidency. Faced with a common challenge—an incipient Communist take-over of Vietnam—presidents Eisenhower and Johnson engaged in intense debates with their aides and associates, some of whom favored intervention and some of whom opposed it. In the Dien Bien Phu Crisis of 1954, Eisenhower decided not to enter the conflict; in 1965, when it became evident that the regime in South Vietnam could not hold out much longer, Johnson intervened. How Presidents Test Reality uses declassified records and interviews with participants to assess the adequacy of each president’s use of advice and information. This important book advances our historical understanding of the American involvement in Vietnam and illuminates the preconditions of effective presidential leadership in the modern world. "An exceptionally thoughtful exercise in what ‘contemporary history’ ought to be. Illuminates the past in a way that suggests how we might deal with the present and the future." —John Lewis Gaddis "Burke and Greenstein have written what amounts to an owner's manual for operating the National Security Council....This is a book Reagan's people could have used and George Bush ought to read." —Bob Schieffer, The Washington Monthly

Author : J. Wren
Publisher : Springer
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2007-11-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230609334

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The Values of Presidential Leadership by J. Wren Pdf

Contributors address aspects of presidential leadership in essays on how presidential values are determined or constructed, how they are condoned and criticized, how they are packaged and conveyed, and how they are interpreted and acted upon. Includes scholars from communication, history, law, philosophy, political science, and psychology

Author : Ronald A. Heifetz
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2009-07-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780674038479

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Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald A. Heifetz Pdf

The economy uncertain, education in decline, cities under siege, crime and poverty spiraling upward, international relations roiling: we look to leaders for solutions, and when they don’t deliver, we simply add their failure to our list of woes. In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader’s inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it. Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority—activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.

Author : Meenekshi Bose
Publisher : Nova Publishers
Page : 140 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1590337948

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The Uses and Abuses of Presidential Ratings by Meenekshi Bose Pdf

Debates about the uses of presidential ratings raise important questions about the accuracy of grouping leaders into single categories. Categories serve to identify some common features within a group, but they also mask important differences, which may distinguish a person significantly from others in the same category. The small number of presidents may make the value of subdividing them minimal, especially given the range of qualities by which we evaluate presidential leadership. Depending on the criteria used, a president may move sharply up or down in the survey -- presidents such as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, both of whom faced scandals in their administrations but also had notable policy achievements, are good examples. Yet rating presidents continues to be a favourite pastime of scholars and journalists, and new surveys always spark heated discussion about why the rankings of certain presidents have changed from previous surveys. This new and timely volume summarises the debates and assesses the uses of presidential ratings in light of those discussions. While presidential ratings surveys do generalise presidential performance and cannot capture all of a president's qu

Author : Alexander DeConde
Publisher : UPNE
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1555535100

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Presidential Machismo by Alexander DeConde Pdf

A look at the expansion of executive authority in America and the influence of scholars, journalists and presidents themselves.

Author : Paul Y. Hammond
Publisher : Univ of TX + ORM
Page : 469 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010-07-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780292773134

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LBJ and the Presidential Management of Foreign Relations by Paul Y. Hammond Pdf

In this insightful study, Paul Y. Hammond, an experienced analyst of bureaucratic politics, adapts and extends that approach to explain and evaluate the Johnson administration’s performance in foreign relations in terms that have implications for the post–Cold War era. The book is structured around three case studies of Johnson’s foreign policy decision making. The first study examines economic and political development. It explores the way Johnson handled the provision of economic and food assistance to India during a crisis in India’s food policies. This analysis provides lessons not only for dealing with African famine in later years but also for assisting Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The second case study focuses on U.S. relations with Western Europe at a time that seemed to require a major change in the NATO alliance. Here, Hammond illuminates the process of policy innovation, particularly the costs of changing well-established policies that embody an elaborate network of established interests. The third case study treats the Vietnam War, with special emphasis on how Johnson decided what to do about Vietnam. Hammond critiques the rich scholarship available on Johnson’s advisory process, based on his own reading of the original sources. These case studies are set in a larger context of applied theory that deals more generally with presidential management of foreign relations, examining a president’s potential for influence on the one hand and the constraints on his or her capacity to control and persuade on the other. It will be important reading for all scholars and policymakers interested in the limits and possibilities of presidential power in the post–Cold War era.

Author : Andrew Rudalevige
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780691190266

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Managing the President's Program by Andrew Rudalevige Pdf

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.

Author : Elaine C. Kamarck
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
Page : 99 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2016-07-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780815727798

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Why Presidents Fail And How They Can Succeed Again by Elaine C. Kamarck Pdf

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.

Author : Jack Snyder
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2013-05-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780801468605

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Myths of Empire by Jack Snyder Pdf

Overextension is the common pitfall of empires. Why does it occur? What are the forces that cause the great powers of the industrial era to pursue aggressive foreign policies? Jack Snyder identifies recurrent myths of empire, describes the varieties of overextension to which they lead, and criticizes the traditional explanations offered by historians and political scientists. He tests three competing theories—realism, misperception, and domestic coalition politics—against five detailed case studies: early twentieth-century Germany, Japan in the interwar period, Great Britain in the Victorian era, the Soviet Union after World War II, and the United States during the Cold War. The resulting insights run counter to much that has been written about these apparently familiar instances of empire building.

Author : Joseph A. Pika,John Anthony Maltese,Andrew Rudalevige
Publisher : CQ Press
Page : 598 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2021-11-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781544390840

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The Politics of the Presidency by Joseph A. Pika,John Anthony Maltese,Andrew Rudalevige Pdf

Get the most up-to-date coverage and analysis of the presidency. Never losing sight of the foundations of the office, The Politics of the Presidency maintains a balance between historical context and contemporary scholarship on the executive branch, providing a solid foundation for any presidency course. In this Revised Tenth Edition, bestselling authors Joseph A. Pika, John Anthony Maltese, and Andrew Rudalevige present a thorough analysis of the change and continuity following the November 2020 presidential election and Biden administration.

Author : Raymond Tatalovich,Steven E Schier
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2014-12-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317455172

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The Presidency and Political Science: Paradigms of Presidential Power from the Founding to the Present: 2014 by Raymond Tatalovich,Steven E Schier Pdf

This history of presidential studies surveys the views of leading thinkers and scholars about the constitutional powers of the highest office in the land from the founding to the present.

Author : William W. Newmann
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2003-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0822970767

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Managing National Security Policy by William W. Newmann Pdf

William Newmann examines the ways in which presidents make national security decisions, and explores how those processes evolve over time. He creates a complex portrait of policy making, which may help future presidents design national security decision structures that fit the realities of the office in today's world.

Author : Vincent Boucher,Charles-Philippe David,Karine Prémont
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 426 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2020-11-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780228004288

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National Security Entrepreneurs and the Making of American Foreign Policy by Vincent Boucher,Charles-Philippe David,Karine Prémont Pdf

Since the advent of the contemporary US national security apparatus in 1947, entrepreneurial public officials have tried to reorient the course of the nation's foreign policy. Acting inside the National Security Council system, some principals and high-ranking officials have worked tirelessly to generate policy change and innovation on the issues they care about. These entrepreneurs attempt to set the foreign policy agenda, frame policy problems and solutions, and orient the decision-making process to convince the president and other decision makers to choose the course they advocate. In National Security Entrepreneurs and the Making of American Foreign Policy Vincent Boucher, Charles-Philippe David, and Karine Prémont develop a new concept to study entrepreneurial behaviour among foreign policy advisers and offer the first comprehensive framework of analysis to answer this crucial question: why do some entrepreneurs succeed in guaranteeing the adoption of novel policies while others fail? They explore case studies of attempts to reorient US foreign policy waged by National Security Council entrepreneurs, examining the key factors enabling success and the main forces preventing the adoption of a preferred option: the entrepreneur's profile, presidential leadership, major players involved in the policy formulation and decision-making processes, the national political context, and the presence or absence of significant opportunities. By carefully analyzing significant diplomatic and military decisions of the Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton administrations, and offering a preliminary account of contemporary national security entrepreneurship under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, this book makes the case for an agent-based explanation of foreign policy change and continuity.