Presidential Leadership in Political Time

In this expanded third edition renowned scholar Stephen Skowronek addresses Donald J. Trump's presidency. Skowronek's insights have fundamentally altered our understanding of the American presidency. His political time thesis has been particularly influential revealing how presidents reckon with the work of their predecessors situate their power within recent political events and assert their authority in the service of change. <p/>A classic widely used in courses on the presidency Skowronek's book has greatly expanded our understanding of and debates over the politics of leadership. It clarifies the typical political problems that presidents confront in political time as well as the likely effects of their working through them and considers contemporary innovations in our political system that bear on the leadership patterns from the more distant past. Drawing out parallels in the politics of leadership between Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt and between James Polk and John Kennedy it develops a new and revealing perspective on the presidential leadership of Clinton Bush Obama and now Trump. <p/>In this third edition Skowronek carefully examines the impact of recent developments in government and politics on traditional leadership postures and their enactment given the current divided state of the American polity the impact of the twenty-four-hour news cycle of a more disciplined and homogeneous Republican party of conservative advocacy of the unitary theory of the executive and of progressive disillusionment with the presidency as an institution. <p/>A provocative review of presidential history Skowronek's book brims with fresh insights and opens a window on the institution of the executive office and the workings of the American political system as a whole. Intellectually satisfying for scholars it also provides an accessible volume for students and general readers interested in the American presidency.