Presidents are surrounded by political strategists and White House counsel who presumably know enough to avoid making the same mistakes as their predecessors. Why, then, do the same kinds of presidential failures occur over and over again? Why Presidents Fail answers this question by examining presidential fiascos, quagmires, and risky business-the kind of failure that led President Kennedy to groan after the Bay of Pigs invasion, 'How could I have been so stupid?' In this book, Richard M. Pious looks at nine cases that have become defining events in presidencies from Dwight D. Eisenhower and the U-2 Flights to George W. Bush and Iraqi WMDs. He uses these cases to draw generalizations about presidential power, authority, rationality, and legitimacy. And he raises questions about the limits of presidential decision-making, many of which fly in the face of the conventional wisdom about the modern presidency.

The elimination of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1995 came during a storm of budget cutting and partisan conflict. Operationally, it left Congress without an institutional arrangement to bring expert scientific and technological advice into the process of legislative decisionmaking. This deficiency has become increasingly critical, as more and more of the decisions faced by Congress and society require judgments based on highly specialized technical information.

Offering perspectives from scholars and scientists with diverse academic backgrounds and extensive experience within the policy process, Science and Technology Advice for Congress breaks from the politics of the OTA and its contentious aftermath. Granger Morgan and Jon Peha begin with an overview of the use of technical information in framing policy issues, crafting legislation, and the overall process of governing. They note how, as nonexperts, legislators must make decisions in the face of scientific uncertainty and competing scientific claims from stakeholders. The contributors continue with a discussion of why OTA was created. They draw lessons from OTA's demise, and compare the use of science and technological information in Europe with the United States.

The second part of the book responds to requests from congressional leaders for practical solutions. Among the options discussed are expanded functions within existing agencies such as the General Accounting or Congressional Budget Offices; an independent, NGO- administrated analysis group; and a dedicated successor to OTA within Congress. The models emphasize flexibility -- and the need to make political feasibility a core component of design.

The Imperiled Presidency: Presidential Leadership in the 21st Century calls for a dramatic re-evaluation of the American president's role within the separation of powers system. In contrast with claims by academics, pundits, media, and members of Congress, this provocative new book argues that the contemporary American presidency is too weak rather than too strong. Cal Mackenzie offers the contrarian argument that the real constitutional crisis in contemporary American politics is not the centralization and accumulation of power in the presidency, but rather that effective governance is imperiled by the diminished role of the presidency. The product of more than three years of research and writing and nearly four decades of the author's teaching and writing about the American presidency, The Imperiled Presidency is the first book-length treatment of the weaknesses of the modern presidency, written to be accessible to undergraduates and interested citizens alike. It engages with a wide range of literature that relates to the presidency, including electoral politics, budgetary politics, administrative appointments, and the conduct of foreign affairs. It would be a useful complement to courses that rely primarily on a single textbook, as well as courses that are built around more specific readings from a range of books and articles.

This book analyzes why the Rehnquist Court never fulfilled expectations for the reversal of liberal judicial decisions from the Warren and Burger Courts. At its conservative high point in 1991-1992 the Supreme Court was dominated by seven justices who had dependably conservative voting records over the course of their early careers. Five of these justices were appointed in the 1980s and early 1990s by Reagan and Bush, presidents who made concerted efforts to appoint judicial officers who would undo liberal precedents. This is the first book to focus on scholars' growing recognition that the Rehnquist Court has not been as conservative as most presumed it would be. In focusing on Justice Antonin Scalia, whose role inadvertently contributed to the Court's failure to achieve conservative goals, the study examines how individual justices can affect Supreme Court decisions through their judicial behavior.

In 2016, Barter was named Acadia National Park's first-ever Poet Laureate, in honor of the park's Centennial year. Barter has been honored with many prestigious awards and accolades, including the Isabella Gardner Award from BOA Editions; the 2014 Maine Literary Award for the year’s best book of poetry published in Maine; a 2010 residency fellowship at The McDowell Colony; a 2009 residency fellowship at Yaddo; a 2008-2009 Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University; finalist for the 2006 Lenore Marshall Prize; and finalist for the 2005 Independent Publishers’ Book of the Year. Barter's poetic voice, with allusive monologues and rich lyricism undercut by deep skepticism, can be likened to such modernist luminaries as T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin, Robert Lowell, Michael Broek, and Frank Bidart. His long monologues and the ways in which his speakers talk can, at times, feel utterly outside of poetry. This collection borrows heavily from Eliot’s methods in The Wasteland, particularly the way he mixes voices, contrasting high and low diction throughout. There is something ironically refreshing about Barter's preference for modern fundamentals versus contemporary, that his work shows more influence by Lowell, Eliot, and Frost than, say, Sharon Olds and Terrance Hayes. Barter's work is deeply reminiscent of our poetic predecessors.

This book explores goal-oriented action and describes the variety of options offered by strategic management in guiding public organisations. The book is based on the idea that planning is only one option in orienting the functioning of public organisations and applies resource-based and network studies to the public sector. Whilst most of the existing literature on strategic management relates to local government, this book examines developments within central governments and public agencies external to government hierarchies. The book also addresses the strategic distinction between politics and administration often neglected by existing research, and illustrates the connection between goal setting and actual performance of government organisations.

It is a well-known fact that Prime ministers are fond of talking, in fact at times it seems impossible to get them to do anything else. The reason for this constant talking is that Prime Ministers are all too aware of the importance of frequently talking to and communicating with the electorate. Political rhetoric has a central function that goes far beyond the need to rouse people at election time or in times of great crisis but rather persuasive political talk by prime ministers is central to the practice of modern government itself.This book argues that there are institutionalised patterns in the speeches that prime ministers give. Like an old-style jukebox, there are only a certain number of records in the prime ministerial machine. Inevitably, each prime minister will play the same songs in the same order as their predecessor. This repetitive rhetoric has an impact not just on the minds of voters, but also on day-to-day governance in Westminster system democracies.

In Search of Federal Enforcement is a call to investigate the history of federal oversight to secure and preserve black Americans' voting rights over a ninety-five-year interregnum. This book satiates the reader's harboring curiosity as to why the national government was culpably negligent in protecting the exercise of the franchise for black Americans until the 1965 Voting Rights Act. As Holloway explains, much of this problem stemmed from Southern Democrats operating in tandem with the power of private actors to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment. This mutual-advantage partnership codified disfranchisement, safeguarded the interests of recalcitrant Southern states and localities, and defended local systems of privilege. In the pages of this timely study, Holloway lays bare the abject failure of the national government and critically evaluates how the Southern status quo stimulated chaos at the national level. Despite market paradigms, In Search of Federal Enforcement confronts this historical conundrum and offers keen observations about voting manipulations and electoral abuse by both incumbents and private actors.

The book uses an original language-based bilayer theory to throw light on the secretive structure of power in the Japanese Diet, its national parliament, and relates its findings to Japanese parliamentary democracy in historical perspective. In so doing, the book answers questions about the latent policymaking process of Japanese politics that resulted in a reduction of social alienation and disorganization while Japan industrialized. Industrialization significantly reduced poverty and increased the size of the middle class, enabling the nation to move towards democracy. The reader will see why socialists were so quixotically dogmatic toward conservatives to the point of absurdity during the Cold War period. Yet, they were able to form a coalition government following the end of Cold War era.

This title was first published in 2001. With the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the legitimacy of one-party, and often one-person rule in other parts of the world has been fundamentally challenged. It appears that for the first time parliamentary democracy has become the universally accepted model to adopt or to be perfected. Newer democracies have started to build the institutions and capacity necessary to sustain democracy, while established democracies continue to refine their democracy, sometimes introducing full-scale reforms. This book examines whether elements of the perfect democracy can be identified and how democratic structures and practices can be improved.

There is a broad consensus that 1937 marked a turning point in the history of the Supreme Court. This is the first comprehensive treatment of the Court's decision-making in the civil liberties/civil rights sphere in the years preceding that watershed. Professor Braeman refutes the widely held assumption that the post-1937 justices were writing upon a largely blank slate in dealing with civil liberties/civil rights issues, arguing instead that much of what the Modern Court has done, when viewed in a long-term perspective, appears as incremental expansions of precedents laid down by the Old Court.

From EDC to CFSP provides a detailed overview of the various attempts to incorporate a security and defense role in the European integration process. The book considers why attempts to include it have been elusive, and assesses what progress has been made to this end since 1945. The assessment includes topics such as the enlargement of NATO, the EU's Amsterdam Treaty, and the role of the revived Western European Union, as well as the role of the main actors, including the United States.

Inter and Intra Governmental Arrangements for Productivity - An Agency Approach focuses on public productivity. It addresses long standing and current questions on government productivity. Its scope and coverage range from theory to very specific applications. First of all it demonstrates the applicability of a theoretical framework to concrete issues in the public sector: the Principal Agent (PA) theory or the Agency theory. Secondly, it demonstrates the different perspectives of this theoretical framework as seen by researchers and practitioners from various countries. The volume is based upon the revised seminar papers from a conference that was held at the University of Twente. Two trends obvious in this world are its increasing global character and the need for increasingly efficient and effective organizations. Inter and intra governmental organizations need to learn to effectively and efficiently work together in complex web like relationships. This study forms a major step in that direction. It consolidates several current economic concepts that are highly visible and specifically applies them to various levels and functions of government. It emphasizes that PA theory is a powerful conceptual framework because of the economic focus on transactions between principals and agents. The issues of information asymmetry, across government constituents, political/diplomatic considerations, and the narrow focus of PA problems will be described. Attention is also given to the issues of citizen demands, internal markets, franchising, competitive procurement and contracting in'. The study concentrates on academic thinking about the applicability of PA concepts to administrative theory building. As such it makes a current, valid contribution to the knowledge and practice of public administration world-wide.

An enduring question for most nations has been how to best represent their citizens and their needs. This is a complex issue as there is no universally accepted definition of good representation. Representation and Institutional Design addresses the issues of institutions and representation by examining how variation in institutional design can affect many aspects of how legislators represent their constituents. It does so by examining the relationships between legislative design (electoral laws, term limits, professionalism, and district size and magnitude) and many aspects of representation (symbolic, service, and policy representation, as well as legislators' incentives to represent). A key finding is that each aspect of professionalism has a unique set of effects on representation. Legislators with staff have closer relationship with their constituents than others. Legislators with other legislative resources engage in more symbolic and service representation but not policy representation. And legislators in institutions with greater capacity were similar to others in their representative style. Findings also indicate that term limits weaken relationships between legislators and constituents and electoral laws, and district size and magnitude have some but limited effects. This is an important study not only because of the importance of representation but also because of the dearth of research on how institutional design affects representation in state legislatures.

For reference librarians, journalists, social media managers, history buffs, and more, a treasure trove of information about the U.S. presidency for each day of the year from the popular, award-winning White House journalist Paul Brandus. The Atlantic calls Brandus "one of the top Washington insiders you should follow on Twitter" (@WestWingReport). For each of the 366 days of the year, Brandus offers little-known, fascinating facts; historical anecdotes; and pithy quotations from and about the 45 presidents of the United States-from George Washington to Donald Trump. This Day in Presidential History will surprise its readers with the inside information that Brandus has uncovered in his years on the White House beat. Here are stories that span war and peace, sex and scandal, frivolity and tragedy-and everything in between, including * the night Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth met at Ford's Theatre-17 months before Booth's crime, * the advice Richard Nixon gave Donald Trump, * the president who immediately went to bed after his swearing in, * the only president to be censured by the U.S. Senate, * the president who gambled away the White House china, * the joyriding teens who crashed into the president's car-and lived to tell the tale, * the secret swearing in, * and much more. Brandus's previous book, Under This Roof: A History of the White House and Presidency (Lyons Press, 2015), was one of Publishers Weekly's "25 Christmas Recommendations."

The problems of global warming and environmental pollution are some of the most difficult challenges this planet faces in the 21st century. Carbon dioxide, often identified as one of the culprits, is an inevitable product of the combustion of fossil fuels, necessary for our modern economies to survive. Thus, The Carbon Dioxide Problem refers to the extremely complex matter of limiting carbon dioxide concentrations to levels that pose little environmental risk without devastating national economies and reducing living standards on the planet. This timely book offers solutions to the global warming problem that lie in the development of comprehensive energy and environmental policies that emphasize the need to use energy efficiently while looking to develop alternative renewable sources. The experience of Japan is particularly relevant due to that country's great dependence on foreign fuel supplies, which has led it to be at the forefront of developing new energy conservation and antipollution technologies.

Originally published in 1993, this title provides a unique insight into the challenges faced by the women who shaped United States foreign policy at the time. The authors examine the "Gender Gap" in beliefs between men and women in the State and Defense departments. Highlighted by interviews with ten leading women in the field - including Jeane Kirkpatrick and Rozanne Ridgway, then the two highest ranking women in foreign policy - the book provides an intimate glimpse into the making of foreign policy during the Reagan administration. Based on 79 interviews with women and men senior executives in the departments of State and Defense, this title poses a number of key questions. Who are the women in the State and Defense Departments, and how do their background and lifestyle choices compare with those of their male colleagues? What problems do they confront in an attempt to influence policy in the international arena? Do the women on the inside make a difference in how policy is formulated or how the departments are managed? Are women by nature more peaceful than men? Will they alter the face of foreign policy? Or are they more likely to hold the same views as men? This title provided an important insight into these questions, and would have been provocative reading at the time of publication.

The first detailed study of Estonian politics during the 1930s, this book examines the Estonian Veterans' League which won a majority in a referendum for its constitutional amendment creating a strong presidency. The Veterans appeared set to triumph in the 1934 elections, but were thwarted by the establishment of an authoritarian regime. By using formerly unobtainable archival records, this study fills a considerable gap in the literature on the Baltic states and should be appealing to those interested in fascism.

Fully updated and expanded, the second edition of this still compact text on British politics expertly analyses the major changes in British political life, placing them revealingly within the context of the evolution of British society from absolute monarchy to representative democracy. The author considers each of the major components of British politics in digestible chapters, such as the Monarchy and the House of Lords, the Commons, voting behaviour, parties and pressure groups, the prime minister and cabinet, devolution, local government, and foreign policy. The book includes two new chapters on the EU referendum and Brexit, and the extraordinary December 2019 election, as well as coverage of events such as the coronavirus pandemic, and the respective travails of the increasingly split two major political parties. This readable and comprehensive introduction will be of key interest to A-level students, undergraduates and those new to the study of British politics.

In developing Legislative Term Limits, the editor has included material that has explicit and testable models about the expected consequences of term limits that reflect Public Choice perspectives. This book contains the best efforts of economists and political scientists to predict the consequences of legislative term limits.

The public sector is experiencing tremendous pressure for strategic change. Governments in many countries require public sector managers to be more responsive to the public and to deliver more value with constrained budgets. Members of the public also face change, and look to their public sector organisations to provide efficient and high quality service, while adapting their activities in a complex and dynamic world.

Strategy in the Public Sector provides guidance to managers who have responsibility for delivering increased levels of efficiency and innovation — and accountability. It shows how strategic changes can be made through realigning and increasing the capacity of the public sector organisation. It shows how managers are now handling strategic changes in the context of public policy, favouring pluralism of service delivery systems and partnership working. Based on the practical experience of managers in local government, central government, health services and education, the book presents insights, lessons and examples from many countries on both sides of the Atlantic that help bring about effective strategic change.

Strategy in the Public Sector has been written for anyone who has a role in modernising the public sector and requires a practical guide in making strategic changes that are both responsive to the public need and sustainable.

The contemporary state is not only the main force behind environmental change, but the reactions to environmental problems have played a crucial role in the modernisation of the state apparatus, especially because of its mediatory role. The Political Ecology of the State is the first book to critically assess the philosophical basis of environmental statehood and regulation, addressing the emergence and evolution of environmental regulation from the early twentieth century to the more recent phase of ecological modernisation and the neoliberalisation of nature. The state is understood as the result of permanent socionatural interactions and multiple forms of contestation, from a critical politico-ecological approach. This book examines the tension between pro- and anti-commons tendencies that have permeated the organisation and failures of the environmental responses put forward by the state. It provides a reinterpretation of the achievements and failures of mainstream environmental policies and regulation, and offers a review of the main philosophical influences behind different periods of environmental statehood and regulation. It sets out an agenda for going beyond conventional state regulation and grassroots dealings with the state, and as such redefines the environmental apparatus of the state.