John P. Burke – författare

Presidential power is perhaps one of the most central issues in the study of the American presidency. Since Richard E. Neustadt's classic study, first published in 1960, there has not been a book that thoroughly examines the issue of presidential power. Presidential Power: Theories and Dilemmas by noted scholar John P. Burke provides an updated and comprehensive look at the issues, constraints, and exercise of presidential power.This book considers the enduring question of how presidents can effectively exercise power within our system of shared powers by examining major tools and theories of presidential power, including Neustadt's theory of persuasion and bargaining as power, constitutional and inherent powers, Samuel Kernell's theory of going public, models of historical time, and the notion of internal time. Using illustrative examples from historical and contemporary presidencies, Burke helps students and scholars better understand how presidents can manage the public's expectations, navigate presidential-congressional relations, and exercise influence in order to achieve their policy goals.

Early in his life, Marx had perceived the prevailing social system as being so deeply flawed as to be irreparable. He was as impatient with utopian fantasies as he was with mere tinkering, and so he was driven to develop not only the intellectual forecast of bourgeois capitalism's necessary demise but also the plan of human action that would at once hasten that demise and school the revolutionary actors for the post-revolutionary task of constructing a good society. The essays in this 1981 book examine the problems that have arisen from attempts to implement Marx's critical theory. The centrality of the good society is hardly to be doubted in the context of that theory. As long as socialist regimes continue to invoke Marx's name, they necessarily render themselves subject to the norms contained within or implied by Marx's understanding and endorsement of freedom, equality, justice and human self-realization in a community.

A civil servant in the Pentagon blows the whistle on the Defense Department by leaking to the press stories of gross overspending. A high-level official in the Environmental Protection Agency publicly reports irregularities in the handling of toxic waste cleanup and the agency's head is forced to resign. The Energy Department fines oil companies for overcharging consumers; does an official overstep his bounds in ordering that the money be distributed to help the poor and elderly pay their heating bills? How much do bureaucrats know? And how much should they tell? In "Bureaucratic Responsibility", John Burke moves from case study to theory to explore what is perhaps the most basic problem confronting modern democracy: How are we to make those bureaucracies upon which government relies both accountable and responsive? Responsibility, Burke contends, must not be primarily to the formally defined terms and obligations of a particular office, but to the institutions of American democracy and the public consent."Bureaucratic Responsibility" is a provocative combination of descriptive analysis, political theory, and prescriptive speculation-- and makes a timely case for a more responsible bureaucracy.

When Franklin Roosevelt decided his administration needed a large executive staff, he instituted dramatic and lasting changes in the federal bureaucracy and in the very nature of the presidency. Today, no president can govern without an enormous White House staff. Yet analysts have disagreed about whether the key to a president's success lies in his ability to understand and adapt to the constraints of this bureaucracy or in his ability to control and even transform it to suit his needs. In The Institutional Presidency John Burke argues that both skills are crucial. Burke examines how the White House staff system-larger and more powerful than ever-interacts with a particular president's management ability and style. Beginning with the institutional presidency that emerged during the Roosevelt administration, this new edition includes a revised chapter on the Bush administration and a new chapter on Bill Clinton.