This history of presidential studies surveys the views of leading thinkers and scholars about the constitutional powers of the highest office in the land from the founding to the present.

The Bush years have given rise to fears of a resurgent Imperial Presidency. Those fears are justified, but the problem cannot be solved simply by bringing a new administration to power. In his provocative new book, The Cult of the Presidency, Gene Healy argues that the fault lies not in our leaders but in ourselves. When our scholars lionize presidents who break free from constitutional restraints, when our columnists and talking heads repeatedly call upon the “commander in chief ” to dream great dreams and seek the power to achieve them—when voters look to the president for salvation from all problems great and small—should we really be surprised that the presidency has burst its constitutional bonds and grown powerful enough to threaten American liberty? Interweaving historical scholarship, legal analysis, and trenchant cultural commentary, The Cult of the Presidency traces America’s decades-long drift from the Framers’ vision for the presidency: a constitutionally constrained chief magistrate charged with faithful execution of the laws. Restoring that vision will require a Congress and a Court willing to check executive power, but Healy emphasizes that there is no simple legislative or judicial “fix” to the problems of the presidency. Unless Americans change what we ask of the office—no longer demanding what we should not want and cannot have—we’ll get what, in a sense, we deserve.

In The Presidency Then and Now, leading political scientists and historians assess the development of the presidency and its role in today's political landscape. The questions addressed in this wide-ranging volume include: How has the doctrine of separation of powers evolved? How have presidential campaigns and presidential oratory influenced the constitutional character of the institution? How does the scandal-driven press coverage of the post-Vietnam and post-Watergate presidency compare with the partisan press of the early republic? Among other topics, the contributors examine the early precedents and modern manifestations of the executive veto, executive privilege, and presidential use of force doctrine, and chart the shift from a constitutionally circumspect and constrained chief executive toward the modern notion of a plebiscitary presidency. The Presidency Then and Now assesses several key trends in presidential leadership including the recent movement toward a policy-centered presidency in which detailed policy development has at times supplanted broad vision and historically informed judgment. Other essays address such topics as the transformation of the Cabinet from a body whose members possessed stature equal to the president to a largely symbolic group that has been replaced in its advisory capacity by the White House staff. The Presidency Then and Now makes a case for returning to constitutional, reasoned deliberation and replacing modern fixation on 'celebrity' status with the founders' notion of 'stature.' By drawing comparisons between the old and the new, The Presidency Then and Now offers timely and incisive insights that will appeal not only to scholars of the presidency but to historians and general readers interested in the constitutional foundations, philosophical debates, and key political developments that have affected the presidential office over time.

Examines both the peril and the promise of presidential power to clarify that what can destroy our Constitution can--if the threat is dire--also save it. An unusually balanced study that argues for a middle path whereby presidents choose consciously to act temporarily outside or even against the laws in serving the nation's best interest.

As the most prominent figure of the U.S. government, the president is under constant scrutiny from both his colleagues and the American people. Questions about the proper role of the president have been especially prevalent in the media during the current economic crisis. The Presidency in the Twenty-first Century explores the growth of presidential power, investigating its social, political, and economic impact on America’s present and future. Editor Charles W. Dunn and a team of the nation’s leading political scientists examine a variety of topics, from the link between campaigning and governing to trends in presidential communication with the public. The book discusses the role of the presidency in a government designed to require cooperation with Congress and how this relationship is further complicated by the expectations of the public. Several contributors take a closer look at the Obama administration in light of President George W. Bush’s emphasis on the unitary executive, a governing style that continues to be highly controversial. Dunn and his contributors provide readers with a thorough analysis of a rapidly changing political role, provoking important questions about the future of America’s political system.

This is the first book to survey the intellectual history of presidential scholarship from the Founding to the late 20th century. Reviewing the work of over sixty thinkers, including Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Neustadt, James McGregor Burns, and Theodore Lowi, the authors identify six central questions, the answers to which can help form a theory of presidential power: • Does presidential power derive from the prerogatives of office or from incumbency?• Does presidential influence depend upon force of personality, rhetorical leadership, or partisanship?• Does presidential leadership depend upon historical context or is regime-building manifested through political, institutional, and constitutional developments?• Does presidential leadership vary between domestic and foreign affairs?• Does the president actively or passively engage the legislative process and promote a policy agenda?• Does the organization of the executive branch service presidential leadership? Arguing that three paradigms have dominated the history of presidential scholarship—Hamiltonianism, Jeffersonianism, and Progressivism—the authors conclude that today's understanding of the presidency is characterized by a "new realism and old idealism." This book will appeal to students and scholars as well as to general readers with an interest in the American presidency.