Read complete books and articles on: Presidency of the United States

President - in modern republics, the chief executive and, therefore, the highest officer in a government. Many nations of the world, including the United States, France, Germany, India, and the majority of Latin American nations, have a president as the official head of state. However, the actual power of the presidency varies considerably from country to country. In Germany the presidential power is relatively weak. True executive power rests with the chancellor, and all acts of the president must have his approval or the approval of one of his ministers. The presidential power in India is similarly subordinated to a cabinet of ministers and restricted primarily to ceremonial functions. By contrast, France (under the Fifth Republic), the United States, and some Latin American countries have given the office of the president considerable authority. In Latin America heads of state have not infrequently assumed dictatorial powers, while retaining the title president. The power of the French president is such that he may dissolve parliament at any time, although not more than once a year, and may veto parliamentary bills. He is commander in chief of the armed forces and possesses extraordinary emergency powers. In the United States, Article II of the Constitution provides for the office of the presidency, which is held for four-year terms and filled by election through the electoral college. The president is given full responsibility for the execution of the laws and is therefore the head of all executive agencies. With the consent of Congress he appoints cabinet members and any other executive officials he sees fit. As commander in chief of armed forces the president has control over the military, although Congress tried to limit his war-making power with the War Powers Act of 1973. He is also responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, although his treaties and appointments must be approved by the Senate and his expenditures by the House of Representatives. To be eligible for the presidency one must be a native-born citizen, over 35 years old, and at least 14 years resident in the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment (1951) limits a president to two four-year terms. For a list of U.S. presidents, see Presidents of the United States, table.

See M. Cunliffe, American Presidents and the Presidency (1972); L. Fisher, President and Congress (1972); F. I. Greenstein, Leadership in the Modern Presidency (1988); L. Fisher, Presidential War Power (1995).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Presidency of the United States

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Power and the Presidency » Read Now
by Robert A. Wilson. 180 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

A sterling collection of original, never-before-published essays on six fascinating contemporary presidents--FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ, Reagan, and Clinton--by some of the leading presidential biographers of our time.
2.

The Paradoxes of the American Presidency » Read Now
by Thomas E. Cronin, Michael A. Genovese. 448 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

What, exactly, do Americans want from their president? A strong, innovative leader or someone who simply follows the will of the people? A president who insists on the ideals of a party or someone who builds bipartisan support? A president who exercises power forcefully or someone who establishes...
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What, exactly, do Americans want from their president? A strong, innovative leader or someone who simply follows the will of the people? A president who insists on the ideals of a party or someone who builds bipartisan support? A president who exercises power forcefully or someone who establishes consensus before doing anything? The answer, according to Thomas E. Cronin and Michael A. Genovese in their provocative new book, The Paradoxes of the American Presidency, is that Americans want the president to be a leader and a follower, partisan and bipartisan, innovative and conservative. For example, we expect our presidents to provide visionary leadership, and yet at the same time to be ever-sensitive to public opinion polls. We want a president with the power to solve the nation's problems, yet we are inherently suspicious of centralized leadership and the abuse of power. Such conflicting demands put the president in an impossible position.Indeed, Cronin and Genovese contendt the duties and challenges of the office are so capacious and the public's expectations often so inconsistent that whatever course of action a president takes may result in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of criticism. While there is no way out of the constant paradoxical dilemmas presidents face, there are ways to deal with these conflicting and sometimes inflated expectations. Yet even master political statecraft is often inadequate in reconciling these paradoxes of the American presidency. In a book sure to encourage debate, The Paradoxes of the American Presidency gives us a fresh new understanding both of the presidential office and the public's inevitable dissatisfaction with it.
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3.

The Myth of the Modern Presidency » Read Now
by David K. Nichols. 192 pgs.

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...The myth of the modern presidency / David...Presidents-- United States. 2. Presidents...modern popular Presidency. 39 Perhaps...or since, the election of 1832 was...Bank...
4.

Presidential Power: Forging the Presidency for the Twenty-First Century » Read Now
by Robert Y. Shapiro, Martha Joynt Kumar, Lawrence R. Jacobs. 507 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Richard Neustadts seminal work "Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership" has endured for nearly four decades as the core of academic study of the American presidency. Now, building on and challenging many of the arguments in Neustadts work, "Presidential Power: Forging the Presidency for the...
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Richard Neustadts seminal work "Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership" has endured for nearly four decades as the core of academic study of the American presidency. Now, building on and challenging many of the arguments in Neustadts work, "Presidential Power: Forging the Presidency for the Twenty-first Century" offers reflections and implications from what we have learned about presidential power as the new century dawns.
These essays -including a new contribution by Neustadt himself -forge a solid reexamination of Neustadts "Presidential Power" that address questions raised but not resolved by his work. A notable aspect of this volumes analysis is the transformed institution of the presidency in the wake of the impeachment hearings of the countrys last twentieth-century president, Bill Clinton. From the portrayal of presidents as persuaders to the politics of presidential transitions, each of the constituent essays in this volume provides an engaging look at the state of the American presidency.
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5.

Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership » Read Now
by Richard E. Neustadt. 224 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...institutions called the government of the United States. This is not a book about the Presidency as an organization, or as...his job. When the job is the Presidency of the...
6.

The Presidency and Public Policy: The Four Arenas of Presidential Power » Read Now
by Robert J. Spitzer. 194 pgs.

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...Manufactured in the United States of America Library...Robert J., 1953- The presidency and public policy...MacGregor Burns The presidency of the United States has sometimes...
7.

The Presidential Veto: Touchstone of the American Presidency » Read Now
by Robert J. Spitzer. 181 pgs.

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...The American Presidency Robert J...State University of New York Press...reserved Printed in the United States of America No...veto. Touchstone of the American presidency...
8.

Pitching the Presidency: How Presidents Depict the Office » Read Now
by Paul Haskell Zernicke. 175 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This unique study focuses upon a specific component of American presidential rhetoric--how presidents depict the office--and relates that rhetorical tactic to broader questions of politics, public opinion, political symbolism, and presidential power. The work analyzes this specific rhetorical...
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This unique study focuses upon a specific component of American presidential rhetoric--how presidents depict the office--and relates that rhetorical tactic to broader questions of politics, public opinion, political symbolism, and presidential power. The work analyzes this specific rhetorical component longitudinally, examining a president's depiction of the office during the presidential campaign, throughout his term in office, and after leaving office. By presenting and analyzing generous examples of presidential rhetoric--from Lyndon Johnson through Bill Clinton--Zernicke offers a revealing look at the symbolic power of the presidency and the use of that power in political terms.
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9.

The Presidency in an Age of Limits » Read Now
by Michael A. Genovese. 214 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This is a study of the relative decline of the American presidency in a period when the role of the United States as a world leader is diminishing. Michael Genovese examines the strategies used by presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, and how political and economic circumstance affected their...
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This is a study of the relative decline of the American presidency in a period when the role of the United States as a world leader is diminishing. Michael Genovese examines the strategies used by presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, and how political and economic circumstance affected their performances. This analysis points also to the ways presidents must govern to be successful in a new era. This short text is intended for students of the presidency and political leadership.
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10.

The Ultimate Decision: The President as Commander in Chief (1960) » Read Now
by Ernest R. May. 296 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...as the history of Japan on Korea or the history of the United States on the Philippines. It was with the unwritten English...commander-in-chief clause when protesting that...
11.

The Managerial Presidency » Read Now
by James P. Pfiffner. 352 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

As the scope and size of the U.S. government has expanded, the importance of good management to the success of a presidency has also increased. Although good management cannot guarantee political or policy success, poor management can certainly undermine good policy and political efforts.
In this...
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As the scope and size of the U.S. government has expanded, the importance of good management to the success of a presidency has also increased. Although good management cannot guarantee political or policy success, poor management can certainly undermine good policy and political efforts.
In this second edition of The Managerial Presidency James P. Pfiffner brings together both classic analyses and more recent treatments of managerial issues that affect the presidency. Some of the foremost presidency scholars have contributed to this volume, including Richard Neustadt, Charles O. Jones, Hugh Heclo, George Edwards, and Louis Fisher. This second edition includes more recent scholarship by Roger Porter, Steven Kelman, Peri Arnold, and Ronald Moe.
The focus of this collection is the extent to which presidents can exercise control over the executive branch bureaucracies and whether it is wise for them to exert that control. Part one deals with the question of how to organize the White House staff.If this organizational problem is not resolved, solving the broader problems of organization and policy will be that much more difficult. Part two addresses the question of how much control presidents should exert over the departments and agencies of the executive branch and how the White House staff and other political appointees relate to career civil servants. The final section examines presidential managerial reform efforts and the congressional role in managing the government.
Although the contributors to this collection do not all agree on how the presidency should be managed, there is surprising consensus on which questions ought to be asked. The analyses addressing those questionswill be of interest to students and scholars of the modern presidency as well as those interested in executive leadership and public administration.
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12.

The Power of Presidential Ideologies » Read Now
by Dennis Florig. 316 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This study examines how presidents shape the way people think about political issues, and it explores the limits that political ideology places on presidential action. Tracing the interplay between political philosophy, policymaking, and party politics from Franklin Roosevelt to George Bush, the...
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This study examines how presidents shape the way people think about political issues, and it explores the limits that political ideology places on presidential action. Tracing the interplay between political philosophy, policymaking, and party politics from Franklin Roosevelt to George Bush, the work looks beyond the typical focus on personality and political tactics to the underlying ideological significance of presidential philosophies and actions. It develops new concepts that lend historical and comparative perspective to current debates about the role of government in American society, and it presents a new way of seeing and interpreting the presidency.
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13.

Presidents from Washington through Monroe, 1789-1825: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents » Read Now
by Amy H. Sturgis. 199 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This work offers the best of both worlds: broad analysis of the first five presidential administrations and specific excerpts from original documents supporting and opposing the presidents' positions. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe speak for...
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This work offers the best of both worlds: broad analysis of the first five presidential administrations and specific excerpts from original documents supporting and opposing the presidents' positions. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe speak for themselves as they argue for their positions on the key political, social, and economic issues of their time in excerpts from primary sources. Excerpts from opposing positions on each issue give the presidents' critics a voice. An explanatory overview of each issue will help students to understand the argument and the context of the issue and to apply critical thinking skills to their understanding. The section on each president includes entries on 4-5 key issues of his administration, from the president's title at the beginning of Washington's administration to American Indian removal at the close of Monroe's term.
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14.

Presidents from Taylor through Grant, 1849-1877: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents » Read Now
by Jeffrey W. Coker. 233 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The years 1849-1877 were among the most pivotal in the nation's history. Over the course of three decades, the United States endured a catastrophic civil war, abolished slavery, expanded westward and added eight states to the Union, and witnessed the beginnings of industrialization. In politics, the...
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The years 1849-1877 were among the most pivotal in the nation's history. Over the course of three decades, the United States endured a catastrophic civil war, abolished slavery, expanded westward and added eight states to the Union, and witnessed the beginnings of industrialization. In politics, the era saw the demise of one national party, the birth of another, and the historic leadership of Abraham Lincoln. The country also faced difficult questions of state sovereignty and federal responsibility answered ultimately by secession and war. In short, it was a time of growth, consolidation, tragedy, and triumph for a dynamic and youthful nation. This resource of primary documents and commentary covers the Taylor through Grant administrations by selecting and describing five to ten of the foremost issues of the day and showing the actual text of the president's position along with the opposing viewpoint.
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15.

Presidents from Hayes through McKinley, 1877−1901: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents » Read Now
by Amy H. Sturgis. 235 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This resource of primary documents and commentary spans from the Hayes through the McKinley administrations, selecting and describing five to ten of the foremost issues of the day. The actual texts of the presidents' positions, along with the opposing viewpoints, are presented. Helpful background...
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This resource of primary documents and commentary spans from the Hayes through the McKinley administrations, selecting and describing five to ten of the foremost issues of the day. The actual texts of the presidents' positions, along with the opposing viewpoints, are presented. Helpful background information and commentary clarifies the primary sources, accurately depicting this dynamic time in the country's past and providing an invaluable resource to any student of American history.
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16.

The President and the Presidency (1949) » Read Now
by Louis Brownlow. 137 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...PRESIDENT AND THE PRESIDENCY BY LOUIS BROWNLOW...SERVICE PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE LAKESIDE...interesting fact that the Presidency not only retains...