The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership

271 Pages·2009·0.772 MB·English

by  George C. Edwards III

T
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Persuasion and Opportunity
in Presidential Leadership
GEORGE C. EDWARDS III
·
Copyright©2009byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,6OxfordStreet,Woodstock,
OxfordshireOX201TW
ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Edwards,GeorgeC.
Thestrategicpresident:persuasionandopportunityin
presidentialleadership/GeorgeC.EdwardsIII.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-691-13947-0(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Presidents—UnitedStates.2.Politicalleadership—UnitedStates.
3.Communicationinpolitics—UnitedStates.I.Title.
JK516.E324 2009
352.23′60973—dc22 2008039432
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinUtopia
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
press.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
to Carmella
whose power to persuade is not in doubt
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Contents
Preface ix
CHAPTER 1 Power as Persuasion 1
CHAPTER 2 Leading the Public: Best Test Cases 19
CHAPTER 3 Leading the Public: Exploiting
Existing Opinion 61
CHAPTER 4 Leading Congress: Best Test Cases 110
CHAPTER 5 Leading Congress: Less Favorable Contexts 152
CHAPTER 6 Reassessing Leadership 188
Notes 201
Index 249
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Preface
IN THEFALL of2005, I begana memorableyear as
OlinProfessorofAmericanGovernmentatOxford.Newsenior
faculty at Oxford deliver an Inaugural Lecture to an intelligent
and worldly university-wide audience. Selecting a topic for
suchalectureisnotaneasytask.Formorethanthreedecades,
Ihadstudiedpresidentialleadership,tryingtounderstandwhy
others,especiallythoseinCongressandthepublic,respondto
thechiefexecutiveastheydo.Moreoftenthannot,Ifoundthat
the White House was frustrated in its attempts to obtain the
supportofothers.Itoccurredtomethatitwastimetoreexam-
inesomeofourbasicpremisesaboutthenatureofpresidential
leadership.
The great presidential scholar, and my dear friend, Richard
Neustadt, revolutionized the study of the presidency with the
publication of Presidential Power in 1960. The essence of his
argument was that “presidential power is the power to per-
suade.” For half a century, scholars and students—and many
presidents—have viewed the presidency through the lens of
Neustadt’s core contention.
Inthisbook,Itakeafreshlookatthenatureofpoliticallead-
ership,withaparticularfocusontheAmericanpresidency.We
typically view leadership as a key, often the key, to explaining
major changes in public policy. If we are to understand such
changes,wemustfirstunderstandthenatureofleadership.The
probabilityofanalyticalerrorandevenpoliticaldisasterishigh
ifscholars,thepublic,andespeciallypresidentsmisunderstand
the true potential of leadership.