Effective Presidency: Lessons on Leadership from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama

ISBN-13: 9781612054339 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 311 str.

Erwin C. Hargrove

Opis

Every four years the American public goes to the polls in hopes of electing a hero to the presidency, trying to find someone larger than life. But heroes are hard to find and sometimes they turn out to be villains. Senior presidential scholar Erwin Hargrove recommends that we shift our sights to electing an effective president instead, and here he shows us how to assess effective presidencies. To address the central question of whether presidents make a difference, Hargrove asks about the most important things each president attempted. He finds that much of the time, "eventful" leadership prevails, but that some presidents may be judged to be "event-making" for good or ill. As George W. Bush has demonstrated, event- making leaders run great risks-sometimes challenging the Constitution-even as they attempt greatness. By contrast, effective presidents combine eventful leadership with a modulated sense of personal ambition, as Barack Obama illustrates. Hargrove examines this winning combination in light of historical context and a fine gauge of personal skills and attributes. Reviewing eventful and event-making presidencies of the last 50 years, Hargrove comes down on the side of effectiveness over the special effects of the pyrotechnic presidencies of the past. The second edition of this classic work adds a new chapter on Barack Obama and updates coverage of the end of the George W. Bush administration. Presidential scholar Erwin Hargrove extends his analytical framework of presidential effectiveness to show how Obama combines eventful leadership with pragmatism in moving the nation forward in an intensely polarized partisan environment.

Spis treści

Introduction: The Effective President

Chapter 1: John F. Kennedy: A Cautious Reformer

Chapter 2: Lyndon B. Johnson: A Force of Nature

Chapter 3: Richard M. Nixon: A Tragic Hero?

Chapter 4: Gerald R. Ford: A Good Man

Chapter 5: Jimmy Carter: The Engineer President

Chapter 6: Ronald Reagan: A Romantic with Vision

Chapter 7: George H. W. Bush: The Patrician

Chapter 8: Bill Clinton: The Politician

Chapter 9: George W. Bush: The Risk Taker

Chapter 10: Barack Obama: Transformational or Transactional Leader?

Conclusion: Presidential Leadership Revisited

O autorze

Erwin C. Hargrove is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and winner of the prestigious Richard E. Neustadt Award. Among his books are The President as Leader: Appealing to the Better Angels of Our Nature (University Press of Kansas 1999), Presidential Leadership: Personality and Political Style (Addison-Wesley 1966), The Power of the Modern Presidency (Temple University Press 1974), and Jimmy Carter as President: Leadership and the Politics of the Public Good (Louisiana State University Press 1988).