The presidency and political science: two hundred years of constitutional debate

Abstract

This work surveys the intellectual history of presidential scholarship from the Founding to the late 20th century. Reviewing the work of over 60 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?; and 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. The book should appeal to students and scholars as well as to general readers with an interest in the American presidency.