Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> American Government - Executive Branch

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As seen on The Daily Show, July 24

State secrets, warrantless investigations and wiretaps, signing statements, executive privilege--the executive branch wields many tools for secrecy. Since the middle of the twentieth century, presidents have used myriad tactics to expand and maintain a level of executive branch power unprecedented in this nation's history.

Most people believe that some degree of governmental secrecy is necessary. But how much is too much? At what point does withholding information from Congress, the courts, and citizens abuse the...

In this provocative interpretation of New Deal diplomacy, Howard Jablon challenges the view that the State Department was wiser and more expert at international maneuver than was President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early years of his presidency. These were years of growing world tension, with the preliminary shots of World War II being fired as Japan took over Manchuria, Italy made Ethiopia an extension of its new Roman Empire, and all the European great powers tried out their new weaponry in Spain. The author argues that the department's advice in this period actually led to...

Read The Chronicle of Higher Ed Author Interview

In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency -- from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.

In a...

In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency--from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.

In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential...

When the Bush presidency began to collapse, pundits were quick to tell a tale of the -imperial presidency- gone awry, a story of secretive, power-hungry ideologues who guided an arrogant president down the road to ruin. But the inside story of the failures of the Bush administration is both much more complex and alarming, says leading policy analyst Alasdair Roberts. In the most comprehensive, balanced view of the Bush presidency to date, Roberts portrays a surprisingly weak president, hamstrung by bureaucratic, constitutional, cultural and economic barriers and strikingly unable to wield...

Media coverage and popular interpretations of American government typically concentrate on the presidency. Observers often attribute the fortunes of an entire government to one person or his small circle of advisers. In an updated and revised edition of his classic book, Charles O. Jones explains how too exclusive a focus on the presidency distorts the picture of how national government really works. He explores how presidents find their place in the permanent government and how they are "fitted in" by others, most notably those on Capitol Hill. Powerful though it may be, the Oval Office...

"America Needs a Woman President will appeal to any woman or man of any political persuasion (or none at all) who hungers for wise and bold leadership. It is a love poem, a visionary rant, a call to action, a cry for sanity. America needs this funny, brilliant, and beautiful book."--Elizabeth Lesser, author of The New American Spirituality

Imagine a president who leads with a mother's love, the forgiving humor of a grandmother, and the wisdom of a medicine woman. These words, beautifully illustrated by artist Eben Dodd, give hope for a new paradigm of leadership at a...

Is American democracy in a death spiral? Why do Americans ignore political frauds and swallow pervasive lies from president after president, in campaign after campaign? In Attention Deficit Democracy, James Bovard diagnoses a national malady whose symptoms include a citizenry indifferent to facts and unable to judge when their rights are under attack. He exposes the frightening national reality of absolute presidential power and argues that our current myopia has dire consequences for America's future. His is an authentic voice urging citizens to return to the principles of the...