The hidden prince: governors, executive power and the rise of the modern presidency

Abstract

Before 1876, no American president had been elected directly from a statehouse. By 1932 five had, and a would-be sixth, Theodore Roosevelt, came to the office through a line of succession made possible by his successful tenure as Albany’s executive. While the modern presidency is increasingly recognized as owing its origins to the administrations of Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, an essential common denominator of the two has largely been ignored. The examples of Roosevelt and Wilson –and their progeny –as state executives, have been disconnected from the larger story of how moderns reconceived the office of President. Moreover, the American governorship’s contributions as an institution that helped redefine newly emerging Progressive Era notions of executive power, has been understudied, and in the main, undervalued. When considering the presidency’s shift toward legislative and party leadership, and the changed communicative avenues traversed by modern presidents, it is of great value to first see these phenomena altered by executives at the state level. From Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt, a progressive line of governors and governor-presidents helped construct an executive-centered governing philosophy that has uniquely stamped what we have come to know as the modern presidency. This dissertation explores how that construction took place, and what the nature of its implications are for both the field of presidential studies and American democracy. In drawing comparisons across time through case studies of the era’s governorships (1876-1932), this dissertation examines how four crucial variables of the modern presidency –legislative and party leadership, press and media initiative, and executive philosophy – were shepherded into executive practice largely through Progressive Era governors and governor-presidents whose constitutional vision and practices defied traditional conceptions of the office.%%%%