This collection examines the foreign and domestic policies of President George W Bush's administration. The analysis begins with an account of how highly polarized--in terms of public opinion and electoral patterns--this presidency has proved to be. This is followed by chapters on the use of unilateral executive powers and pre-rogative powers. Because the policy choices of the Bush presidency have had such fundamental effects both in domestic policy and in US foreign policy, three contributors then address the processes of decision making especially in respect to the war against Iraq. How the...

No legislature in the world has a greater influence over its nation's public affairs than the US Congress. The Congress's centrality in the US system of government has placed research on Congress at the heart of scholarship on American politics. Generations of American government scholars working in a wide range of methodological traditions have focused their analysis on understanding Congress, both as a lawmaking and a representative institution. The Oxford Handbook of the American Congress takes stock of this impressive and diverse literature, identifying areas of accomplishment and...

Public opinion and the media form the foundation of the United States' representative democracy. They are the subject of enormous scrutiny by scholars, pundits, and ordinary citizens. This Oxford Handbook takes on the "big questions" about public opinion and the media--both empirical and normative--focusing on current debates and social scientific research. Bringing together the thinking of a team of leading academic experts, its chapters provide a cutting assessment of contemporary research on public opinion, the media, and their interconnections. Emphasizing changes in the mass media and...

When Barack Obama became president, many Americans embraced him as a transformational leader who would fundamentally change the politics and policy of the country. Yet, two years into his administration, the public resisted his calls for support and Congress was deadlocked over many of his major policy proposals. How could this capable new president have difficulty attaining his goals? Did he lack tactical skills?

In Overreach, respected presidential scholar George Edwards argues that the problem was strategic, not tactical. He finds that in President Obama's first two...