Marking the third centenary of the office of Prime Minister, this book tells its extraordinary story, explaining how and why it has endured longer than any other democratic political office in world history. Sir Anthony Seldon, historian of Number 10 Downing Street, explores the lives and careers, loves and scandals, successes and failures, of all our great Prime Ministers. From Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger, to Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher, Seldon discusses which of our Prime Ministers have been most effective and why. He reveals the changing relationship between the Monarchy and the office of the Prime Minister in intimate detail, describing how the increasing power of the Prime Minister in becoming leader of Britain coincided with the steadily falling influence of the Monarchy. This book celebrates the humanity and frailty, work and achievement, of these 55 remarkable individuals, who averted revolution and civil war, leading the country through times of peace, crisis and war.

There is no more important decision an American voter can make than selecting who will become the next president of the United States, and voters should not be forced to guess whether a candidate is qualified to become president. In "Qualified," author Jamin Soderstrom proposes a resume challenge that could revolutionize the election system and help to bring the presidential hiring process into the twenty-first century.

"Qualified" presents a tool, developed by Soderstrom, to help voters compare presidential candidates with each other and with past presidents. This resume-based approach focuses on the candidates experiences and abilities and evaluates legislative, executive, military, foreign, and private experience; education and intellect; and writing and public speaking ability. It ensures that future presidents will be leaders qualified by constitutional, historical, and practical standards.

A blend of analysis and insight, "Qualified" seeks to provide information to voters to help ensure the public elects presidents who have the experience, ability, and temperament to rise above the fray and become historically successful. The innovative resume challenge will help shed light on which candidates in 2012 meet the QUALIFIED THRESHOLD for presidential success.

This book aims to explain why some presidents are more successful than others in winning the support of legislators during periods of unified government. This book covers five presidential and semi-presidential systems such as France, Indonesia, Mexico, Taiwan, and the U.S. with a wide variety of institutional arrangements and political dynamics. This book elaborates on explaining how institutional factors such as confidence vote, electoral system, candidate nomination and presidential unilateral power influence the ability of presidents to pass their legislative agendas through comparisons across presidential and semi-presidential systems.

"Conservative Intellectuals and Richard Nixon" explores the relationship between postwar conservatives and the president from 1968 to 1974. Seemingly casting those years out of their history, conservatives have never fully explored how Richard Nixon affected their movement. They fail to realize the extent his presidency helped refocus their fight against liberalism and communism.""Mergel uses the Nixon years as a window into the Right's effort to turn ideology into successful politics. It""combines an assessment of Nixon's presidency through the eyes of conservative intellectuals with an attempt to understand what the Right gained from its experience with Nixon.

The ambitious self-made man who reached the pinnacle of American politics--only to be felled by an assassin's bullet and to die at the hands of his doctors
James A. Garfield was one of the Republican Party's leading lights in the years following the Civil War. Born in a log cabin, he rose to become a college president, Union Army general, and congressman--all by the age of thirty-two. Embodying the strive-and-succeed spirit that captured the imagination of Americans in his time, he was elected president in 1880. It is no surprise that one of his biographers was Horatio Alger.
Garfield's term in office, however, was cut tragically short. Just four months into his presidency, a would-be assassin approached Garfield at the Washington, D.C., railroad station and fired a single shot into his back. Garfield's bad luck was to have his fate placed in the care of arrogant physicians who did not accept the new theory of antisepsis. Probing the wound with unwashed and occasionally manure-laden hands, Garfield's doctors introduced terrible infections and brought about his death two months later.
Ira Rutkow, a surgeon and historian, offers an insightful portrait of Garfield and an unsparing narrative of the medical crisis that defined and destroyed his presidency. For all his youthful ambition, the only mark Garfield would make on the office would be one of wasted promise.

Behind every leader is an instructive life story. It often promotes a public image that inspires others to live by it. And, sometimes, even to live or to die for it. As leadership qualities and image issues gain significance in the public discourse, the psychological study of leadership is a critical factor in any discussion. With its trenchant insights into leaders past and present, The Leader: Psychological Essays, Second Edition, updates a pioneering text in this field and provides a solid basis for ongoing dialogue on this important subject. Within the context of the ever-evolving disciplines of psychoanalysis and psychodynamics, this thought-provoking volume examines the lives of several prominent leaders from ancient Greece through the start of the 21st century. The authors explore how these leaders imposed their individual missions and mystiques on others, thereby fulfilling -- and, sometimes, creating -- distinct needs in their followers. The volume brings into vivid focus issues with the potential for devastating consequences on the global stage. Coverage includes: * Biblical times, ancient Greeks and the seeds of leadership. * Lincoln during the 1850s, leading a dividing nation. * Thomas A. Kohut on Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German national character. * George W. Bush, atonement/redemption narratives and the American Dream. * Bin Laden, man and myth. * A study of paranoid leadership and its implications for future politics and policy. This must-have Second Edition is indispensable reading for researchers, professors, and graduate students across many disciplines, including political psychology, psychoanalysis, history and political science, psychiatry, anthropology, and personality and social psychology. It is important reading for anyone with an interest in the life stories of leaders past and present and how they affect our world even long after they are gone.

This book examines the use of presidential power during the War on Terror. Justin DePlato joins the debate on whether the Constitution matters in determining how each branch of the federal government should use its power to combat the War on Terror. The actions and words of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are examined. DePlato's findings support the theory that executives use their own prerogative in determining what emergency powers are and how to use them. According to DePlato, the Presidents argue that their powers are implied in Article II of the Constitution, not expressed. This conclusion renders the Constitution meaningless in times of crisis. The author reveals that Presidents are becoming increasingly cavalier and that the nation should consider adopting an amendment to the Constitution to proffer expressed executive emergency powers.

Feldman, Valenty, and their contributors present state-of-the-art evaluations of linkages between personality, motivation, decision making, leadership style, and behavior among political leaders across divergent cultures. Leading scholars in the field examine the application of theoretical approaches and research methods used to evaluate these important relationships. They effectively illustrate the concomitant role of cultural and political context, historical circumstance, environmental factors, and socialization agents affecting political leadership and performance.

Contributors evaluate methods currently in use by scholars in political science, psychology, political psychology, social psychology, and history, including psychodiagnostic and psychobiographical approaches, and the application of these methods in profiling the personalities of political leaders. Each chapter presents a unique case study evaluating a political leader or leaders including such major figures as Mao Zedong, Tony Blair, Seyyed Mohammed Khatami, Helmut Kohl, and Stalin, Yeltsin, and Putin.

An examination of the long-ignored vicious side to the legend of Brazilian President Getulio Dornelles Vargas, this is the tale uncovered by the first civilian to spend months in the secret police archives of Rio de Janeiro. Rose has utilized new eyewitness testimony and insider information in offering explanations to several events that proved pivotal in Brazil during the 1930s and 1940s. During Vargas's tenure, the quality and quantity of human rights abuses reached unprecedented heights. Violence, as a means of coercing the public, was evident in all sectors of the security apparatus. Several tools of torture developed during the hunt for communists are still in use today. Almost by definition, politicians have to offer a semblance of providing something for each different sector of society. Vargas was better at this than his predecessors in that with ease he proudly wore the various vestments of dictator, fascist, democrat, and populist as necessary. For the poor, he was the paternalistic benefactor; for the middle class, he was the one who brought stability; and for the wealthy, he supported the status quo. This ability to juggle forces and interests was grounded in his security apparatus. Beginning with the unsuccessful Communist Revolution of 1935, the nation's police forces redefined and in some cases reinvented the torture that had occurred in Brazil from colonial times onward. The harshness of their methods was matched only by the ardor of their example for coming generations.

This is the essential Nigerian story. In order to tell it, one has to live it, one has to acquire the skill of telling the story and the perspective to see it whole. TONY OYATEDOR has done all these and more. This is an exhilarating book. DR. EPHRAIM OKORO, Ph.D., Howard University, Washington, D.C. Tony Oyatedor started his journalism career as a reporter with the NEW BAYVIEW newspaper in San Francisco, California, United States of America, from 1979-1981. He returned to Nigeria in 1981 where he first worked at OPHELIA magazine as a reporter and later moved to RADIO NIGERIA TWO AM/FM where he worked as a broadcaster. He hosted a Wednesday prime time program called the "Dawn Show" from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., "Reggae Time" every Monday from Noon - 1:00 p.m., "Teen and Twenty Beats" and other variety programs. Tony interviewed many eminent personalities including musicians such as Millie Jackson, Kool and the Gang, Fela Anikulapo-kuti, Sonny Okosun, Everlyn Champaign King, Ebenezer Obey, Sunny Ade along with many others. He was also Master of Ceremonies for numerous events at the National Arts Theater Lagos. He later moved to Nigerian Television Authority (N.T.A.) where he first worked in the programs department organizing variety shows including serving as host of the network program "Young World" which brought him much acclaim. He then switched to the network news department where he became a news reporter and news-caster. Later he served as U.S. correspondent for the now defunct THIS WEEK magazine and subsequently worked as a consultant to the AFRICAN GUARDIAN magazine. Tony Oyatedor was the editor of the DESCENDANT newspaper, based in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and heis the publisher/editor-in-chief of NEWSTIME magazine and President of NEWSTIME foundation. He is also the President/Chief executive officer of NEWSTIME LTD., a publishing/consulting firm. Tony Oyatedor is a speaker, international consultant and philanthropist.

Based on original empirical research that includes 90 interviews with key leaders, this book compares and contrasts negotiations during the processes of German unification and Eastern enlargement of the EU, with particular attention to the Czech Republic. It develops two models of political integration and suggests that such integration can take place by means of a take-over (Transplantation), or by the joining entity adjusting to the norms and institutions of the accepting party (Adaptation). In addition to an exploration of these two different models and a detailed examination of the two cases, the book points to other historical examples of Transplantation and Adaptation and formulates lessons for where future research might travel, temporarily and geographically, in the cases of other political integrations. Providing new insights into German unification and European integration, this text is key reading for academics, advanced undergraduate and graduate students in EU Politics, as well as policy-makers and the wider public.

A provocative reconsideration of a presidency on the brink of Civil War
Almost no president was as well trained and well prepared for the office as James Buchanan. He had served in the Pennsylvania state legislature, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate; he was Secretary of State and was even offered a seat on the Supreme Court. And yet, by every measure except his own, James Buchanan was a miserable failure as president, leaving office in disgrace. Virtually all of his intentions were thwarted by his own inability to compromise: he had been unable to resolve issues of slavery, caused his party to split-thereby ensuring the election of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln-and made the Civil War all but inevitable.
Historian Jean H. Baker explains that we have rightly placed Buchanan at the end of the presidential rankings, but his poor presidency should not be an excuse to forget him. To study Buchanan is to consider the implications of weak leadership in a time of national crisis. Elegantly written, Baker's volume offers a balanced look at a crucial moment in our nation's history and explores a man who, when given the opportunity, failed to rise to the challenge.

The collapse of the Irish "Celtic Tiger" economy, in the wake of a banking disaster, provoked a joint EU/IMF rescue plan in late 2010. The election that followed saw Europe's most successful ever party lose more than half of its vote and almost three quarters of its seats. This book provides the definitive analysis of an electoral earthquake.

Twenty-Five Years of GOP Presidential Nominations examines the recent presidential nominees of the Republican Party. The author explores the idea that the presidential defeats of Republican nominees begin with the primary election choice of a moderate candidate in hopes that the chosen candidate's conservative rhetoric will translate into a general election victory. Written in a unique and dynamic style, this book details the recent history of the party's successes and failures through notable figures such as George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole.

America is under attack from within. "American Manifesto" identi?es the enemy self-serving federal legislators and proposes a peaceful, legal solution: depriving them of re-election.

"American Manifesto" highlights the current decline and envisions the possible destruction of the United States of America. It places responsibility on the self-serving and self-perpetuating behavior of the United States senators and representatives who have spent and borrowed us to the brink of ?nancial collapse. By pandering to the American Left, labor unions, lawyers, environmentalists, and other vote-buying interests instead of conscientiously serving us by effectively addressing our excessive spending, the insolvency of entitlement programs, our arbitrary and unduly burdensome tax laws, and the erosion of our military strength and international standing, these professional politicians have our once-great country on the brink of ruin.

"American Manifesto" proposes to make federal legislators work for us rather than themselves in the only way possible and outlines just how this can be done.

This text analyzes the foreign policy decision-making processes of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama during military intervention by way of contemporary foreign policy decision-making models (FPDMs).

This is the first thorough and systematic interrogation of Republican Party oratory and rhetoric that examines a series of leading figures in American conservative politics. It asks: How do leading Republican Party figures communicate with and influence their audiences?; What makes a successful speech, and why do some speeches fail to resonate? Most importantly, it also investigates why orators use different styles of communication with different audiences, such as the Senate, party conventions, public meetings, and through the media. By doing so it shines important new light into conservative politics from the era of Eisenhower to the more brutal politics of Donald Trump. The book will appeal to students and scholars across the fields of US politics, contemporary US history, and rhetoric and communication studies.

In this book, contributors address aspects of presidential leadership in essays on how presidential values are determined or constructed, how they are condoned and criticized, how they are packaged and conveyed, and how they are interpreted and acted upon. It includes scholars from communication, history, law, philosophy, political science, and psychology.

As a general, Ulysses S. Grant is routinely described in glowing terms - the man who turned the tide of the Civil War, who accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and who had the stomach to see the war through to final victory. But his presidency is another matter - the most common word used to characterize it is "scandal." Grant is routinely portrayed as a man out of his depth, whose trusting nature and hands-off management style opened the federal coffers to unprecedented plunder. But that caricature does not do justice to the realities of Grant's term in office, as Josiah Bunting III shows in this provocative assessment of our eighteenth president. Grant came to Washington in 1869 to lead a capital and a country still bitterly divided by four years of civil war. His predecessor, Andrew Johnson, had been impeached and nearly driven from office, and the radical Republicans in Congress were intent on imposing harsh conditions on the Southern states before allowing them back into the Union. Grant made it his priority to forge the states into a single nation, and Bunting shows that despite the troubles that characterized Grant's terms in office, he was able to accomplish this most important task-very often through the skillful use of his own popularity with the American people. Grant was indeed a military man of the highest order, and he was a better president than he is often given credit for.

Nationalism is a key topic within Balkan Studies, and one of the driving forces behind the bloody and difficult history of the region. Using primary sources not previously utilized by western scholars, this book documents the 'Croatian Spring' - a national and liberal movement that began in the mid-sixties after the fall of the vice president and head of the Yugoslav secret police Aleksandar Rankovic. The author chronicles these developments of democratisation and de-centralisation of communist Yugoslavia, placing them in the wider context of the Cold War and Yugoslav relations with the Soviet Union and the UnitedStates. Tito managed to balance national stability and his relations with East and West, until he felt that the national-liberal movements challenged his authority, and thus threaten the very foundations of the Yugoslav state. From late 1971 onwards, the liberal political and cultural classes of Croatia and other republics were abruptly purged, impoverishing Yugoslav leadership for subsequent decades.Batovic also considers the role of the West, who felt a centralised and stable Yugoslavia was in their interests and quickly accommodated themselves to the repression of the reformist movement.