Imperiled Presidency

G. Calvin Mackenzie is Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government at Colby College where he has taught since 1978. His specialty areas include presidential transitions and the politics of presidential appointments, and he has been a consultant on these matters to presidential staff and congressional committees.He is the author or editor of scores of articles and nearly twenty books, including The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s (co-authored with historian Robert Weisbrot), which was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History.

“Cal Mackenzie has written a provocative study of how contemporary political, social, and technological forces have weakened the president's ability to lead successfully and what can be done to facilitate that leadership. This wonderfully written book is a major contribution to our understanding of the 21st century presidency's frustrations and potential.”

• 1. What Kind of Presidency: The Legacy of Ambiguity—reviews the legacy of ambiguity about executive authority that resulted from the fears and uncertainties of the framers of the Constitution. It then explores the interweaving of politics and scholarship in subsequent debates about the proper balance between authority and constraint in the office of the president. The arguments of the most prominent of the recent critics of presidential aggrandizement are identified here to set the stage for the contrary position this book takes2. The Expectations Gap: Why Presidents Disappoint—on the burden of expectations that falls on contemporary presidents and the gap between those expectations and their capacity to meet them3. Becoming President—examines the contemporary process by which presidents are nominated and elected and explains how that process diminishes the leadership opportunities of the person who survives it4. The Myth of the Bully Pulpit—explores the evolution of mass communication over the past several decades from the golden age of presidential television dominated by three networks and a single national audience to today’s atomized and rapidly changing communications environment. While the former enlarged opportunities for presidential leadership in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the latter severely constrains those opportunities now5. Forces of Resistance—surveys the Washington environment in which contemporary presidents operate and the growing forces of resistance they now confront: an increasingly impaired Congress; an expansive, aggressive, and well-financed universe of special interest groups; and federal courts engaged in a far wider range of policy issues than ever before and no longer disposed to defer to presidents6. Foreign Policy: A Special Case—takes a closer look at foreign policy, the one area in which presidential dominance has been widely noted and often deemed inevitable. But even here there is abundant evidence that new and significant constraints on presidential authority have emerged in recent decades. The freedom of action that presidents once enjoyed beyond the water’s edge now suffers unprecedented constrictions and a wider and more vigorous set of opponents than ever before7. A Presidency for the 21st Century— offers summary diagnoses of the burdens on modern presidential leadership, an assessment of their impacts on the health of American democracy, and a prescription of difficult but necessary cures if America is to have the kind of leadership that the challenges of the 21st century will require