How do presidents lead? If presidential power is the power to
persuade, why is there a lack of evidence of presidential
persuasion? George Edwards, one of the leading scholars of the
American presidency, skillfully uses this contradiction as a
springboard to examine--and ultimately challenge--the dominant
paradigm of presidential leadership. "The Strategic President"
contends that presidents cannot create opportunities for change by
persuading others to support their policies. Instead, successful
presidents facilitate change by recognizing opportunities and
fashioning strategies and tactics to exploit them.
Edwards considers three extraordinary presidents--Abraham
Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan--and shows that
despite their considerable rhetorical skills, the public was
unresponsive to their appeals for support. To achieve change, these
leaders capitalized on existing public opinion. Edwards then
explores the prospects for other presidents to do the same to
advance their policies. Turning to Congress, he focuses first on
the productive legislative periods of FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and
Reagan, and finds that these presidents recognized especially
favorable conditions for passing their agendas and effectively
exploited these circumstances while they lasted. Edwards looks at
presidents governing in less auspicious circumstances, and reveals
that whatever successes these presidents enjoyed also resulted from
the interplay of conditions and the presidents' skills at
understanding and exploiting them.
"The Strategic President" revises the common assumptions of
presidential scholarship and presents significant lessons for
presidents' basic strategies of governance.
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