Conclusion

Abstract

This volume has addressed the values of presidential leadership. As the introduction indicated, each construct in the volume’s title is significant. Taking the words in reverse order, leadership was depicted as a mutual influence process among leaders and followers in which each participant harbors his or her own complex motives and constructions of reality and operates as part of a collective in a complicated and ever-shifting environment in an effort to achieve desired goals. Within that wonderfully complex conception is the phenomenon of presidential leadership. Given the sophistication of the construct of leadership, it should come as no surprise that the study of presidential leadership should encompass much more than a consideration of the individuals who have held the position. Such a study should go beyond an investigation of the behavior and psychology of individual presidents and concern itself with interactions between presidents and myriad other social actors, as well as with the complex dynamic created by surrounding historical, social, economic, political, and intellectual forces. Clearly, then, understanding presidential leadership is a daunting undertaking.KeywordsBush PresidencyDivided GovernmentConstitutional InterpretationPresidential LeadershipCollective LeadershipThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.