The Presidency and Public Policy: The Four Arenas of Presidential Power

Product Description

Spitzer's classic study of presidential power, The Presidency and Public Policy examines the annual domestic legislative programs of US presidents from 1954-1974 to show how and in what ways the characteristics of their proposals affected their success in dealing with Congress (success being defined as Congress's passing the presidents' legislative proposals in the forms offered). Presidential skills matter, but Spitzer demonstrates that the successful application of those skills is relatively easy for some policies and next to impossible for others. Certain consistent patterns predominate regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, and to a great extent those patterns prescribe prseidential behavior.


Review

"Some might argue that Spitzer's typology demonstrates then obvious, but it has been neither obvious nor even emphasizedm in much of the scholarly writing on the presidency. When added to the thoroughness and skill with which this book is written, them typology is a significant contribution worth the reader's careful attention and assimilation."-- Political Science Quarterly

"Spitzer's volume is concise . . . yet it is clearly the most comprehensive treatment of the often touted but seldom tested typology first advanced by Theodore Lowi twenty years ago. . . . It is a solid, indeed admirable, contribution to the growing literature on the presidency and public policy."- Presidential Studies Quarterly

About the Author

Robert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland.