Presidential Leadership: Politics and Policy Making

From routine operations to the workings of a White House in crisis, PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS AND POLICY MAKING examines all facets of the presidency in rich detail, with a special emphasis on policy. The authors use analytical prose and timely, fascinating examples to examine the presidency from two theoretical standpoints--the President as "facilitator," and the President as "director of change."

George C. Edwards III, one of the country's leading scholars of the presidency, is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University and also holds the George and Julia Blucher Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies. He has served as both the Winant Professor and the Olin Professor of American Government at Oxford and the John Adams Fellow at the University of London, and has held senior visiting appointments at Sciences Po in Paris, Peking University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He has authored dozens of articles and has written or edited 25 books on American politics and public policy making. He is also editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly and general editor of the Oxford Handbook of American Politics series. Among his latest books, ON DEAF EARS: THE LIMITS OF THE BULLY PULPIT examines the effectiveness of presidential leadership of public opinion, WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS BAD FOR AMERICA evaluates the consequences of the method of electing the president, THE STRATEGIC PRESIDENT offers a new formulation for understanding presidential leadership, and OVERREACH analyzes leadership in the Obama presidency. Professor Edwards has served as president of the Presidency Research Section of the American Political Science Association, which has named its annual dissertation prize in his honor and awarded him its Career Service Award. He has received the Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service from the U.S. Army and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has spoken to 250 universities and other groups in the U.S. and abroad, keynoted numerous national and international conferences, done hundreds of interviews with the national and international press, and can be heard on National Public Radio.

Stephen Wayne is Professor of Government at Georgetown University. He is a Washington insider who has written many books and articles on the presidency and presidential elections. He often appears on television and radio news programs.