politics papers

 I had an assignment for writing a review for the Modern Presidency book and the professor have gave me his comments to edit the mistakes that he found in the papers, so I have attached the paper instructions or rev rwiting the paper to imagine the way that I used to write and and the professor comment that need to be fixed as well. it is around 9 to 10 pages. you will find the comments from the instructor in the last attachment as PDF.

Running head: THE MODERN PRESIDENCY
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THE MODERN PRESIDENCY
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American presidency has been researched on for the past three decades. Major developments in the central government have attracted a lot of attention in the office of the president. The Modern Presidency, Fifth Edition, 2007 is a text written James Pfiffner. It is a refined text written to the point on issues of presidency. It illustrates case studies on various aspects of the presidency and process of decision making. The book has been extensively updated from 2006 to 2010, and its contents include presidents such as George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. Published by Thomson Wadsworth and copyrighted in 2008, the book entails large institutions that comprise the modern presidency. It does not concentrate on the individual presidents. James P. Pfiffner is a top scholar on presidency. He is a university professor at School of Public Policy at George Mason University. He was also one of the lecturers at the University of California, Riverside and California State University, Fullerton. His major concentrations are on the presidency, the national government of America and public management. He is also elected on the National Academy of Public Administration.

The book explains how the modern presidency has developed over the years through different administrations. Pfiffner divides his thoughts into three major themes and discusses them throughout the eight chapters of the book. For instance, in chapter one and two, Pfiffner explains how the relationship between the president and the people has evolved. This has been developed through people’s democratic right to vote. He continues to elaborate the institutions that have been developed by the presidents to assist in decision making. He mentions how the presidency has increased the executive powers in chapter three and five. Chapter six to eight, Pfiffner looks into the separation of power system and how this has limited the power of the president. He also examines how the balance of powers between the branches of the government has changed in the shift towards modern presidency.

Chapter one of the book comprise of the summary of the eight chapters in the first half. The rest of the chapter elaborates on the origin and powers of the President. Pfiffner is of the opinion that the presidency has limited powers due to the congress and multiple party systems. This hinders the president from exercising complete control over the government. The historical changes that occur over the years in terms of international relations and technology affected the office of the presidency. In the author’s sentiments, there was a need to expand the national government to handle the changes. For instance, the central government lacked the power to recognize currency from other states and could not regulate money or impose taxes on other states. The economy was bad, and the national debt was increasing. According to Pfiffner (2007), all these issues were brought by the lack of an independent executive to address these problems. A meeting was held in Philadelphia in 1787 by the framers with an intention of creating an executive branch that had more powers than either the states or the central government.

According to Pika (1990), in his article, Researching and Teaching the American Presidency: an Overview of Trends, President Richard Nixon administration brought a lot of interest to the presidency. Analyst had some doubts on whether giving more powers to the president was necessary. Nixon’s conduct of action on the war in Southeast Asia brought a lot of conflict with the Congress over powers. Nixon’s affirmation of presidential powers and executive dispensation challenged unofficial and undocumented agreements with the United States Congress that had been discussed by his predecessors. For many years, controversies have surrounded the presidency bringing out scholarly interest on the subject. Many scholars have independently researched on the issue of presidency. Both President Carter and Ford presented scholars such as James P. Pfiffner with the chance to examine and analyze case studies of unsuccessful presidencies. President Reagan era had a significant impact on the scholar’s research. His experience was different from that of President Nixon. Reagan experience was filled with inventive administrative practices, which encouraged students of presidential management to reconsider a number of old assumptions. Reagan’s time in office increased research on presidential associations with the public. There was also a redirected dialogue on president’s management because of his inventive and occasionally borrowed techniques intended to attain his purposes. Pfiffner claims that Article II of the constitution that provides the powers of the president is short and vague as compared to Article I in terms of powers given to the Congress. The article stipulates that the US President has all the powers. The author criticizes the Article; he claims that it is vague and unclear whether the “executive powers” means powers given to the president or merely a title. The president as the commander-in-chief has the power to “direct the armed forces of the US at his or her discretion” (Pfiffner, 2007, p. 11).

The author is elaborate in terms of the presentation of controversies in the twenty-first century during President George W. Bush reign. He argues that President Bush utilized his powers in an unprecedented manner. The president and his vice President Cheney thought the previous presidents did not utilize their executive powers fully because of interference from the Congress (Pfiffner, 2007). After the 9/11 attacks, there was a need to implement secret presidential actions. The administration was filled with republicans who were unwilling to challenge President Bush. The people were traumatized and placed their faith on President Bush; hence claiming that his actions were not well intended at the defense of the state (Pfiffner, 2007, p. 14).

Pfiffner is of opinion that President George W. Bush applied “plebiscitary presidency”, which meant that once he was elected, congress or the law had no right to restrict him. Pfiffner does not elaborate on how plebiscitary presidency refers to the expansion of the federal government and increases the responsibilities of the president. His argument is correct when he mentions that the plebiscitary presidency creates more expectations of the president from the people. The expectations are more than the resources presidents have to attain them. For example, President Bush administration relied heavily on federal bureaucracy. He respected the spirit of permanent institutions. President Bush appointment criterion was different from that of President Reagan. President Reagan advocated for a conservative moment and ideological change. President Bush, on the other side, appointed people who could lead agencies. His administration was also based on loyalty, diversity and competence.

The author is also critical and explicit in the manner he discusses the relationship between the President and the people. He also discusses the evolution of democracy and the impact on development. According to Pfiffner (2007), communication and Public Liaison Offices in the White House have devised ways to come up with new communication technologies to control media’s outlook of the administration. This enables the office to control what is revealed to the public and what is not. This will help shape people’s opinion as well as the approval of the president performance. Pfiffner explains how democratization has changed over the years. He describes the congressional nomination process during the early 1800s to the party-dominated convention towards the current primary-dominant nomination. Although the author elaborately discusses the element of democracy, his claims that the framers would find the new system to be too democratic is unjustified. This is because he fails to comment on people that are excluded from the highest office due to their race, gender or their non-European heritage. His surveys about the opinion of the President as the only national leader elected through a democratic process is biased and do not reflect the interest of the people. However, the author is right to condemn the obsession the President and the administration have on the opinion polls. He says that they should stop looking for the highest opinion ratings and concentrate on long term needs of the nation.

Pfiffner also talks about the White House staff and the Organization. During Nixon presidency, the White House staff increased more than the previous administration to include the chief of staff; a position that became essential. A chief of staff became the most defining character in the Modern Presidency. Pfiffner insists on the importance of a chief of staff in any presidential administration. He mentions how presidents Ford and Carter failed during their administration when they decided not to elect a chief of staff. Pfiffner describes the chief of staff as a competent individual who can efficiently give order issues pertaining development, accessibility to the president and resolution to the administrative disputes (Pfiffner, 2007, p. 87). Here, his subject on White House staff is captivating in the sense that there are individuals next to the President who have potential in terms of policy, politics and performance in the administration duties. However, the author loses track when he over credit the chief of staff and disregards the rest of the staff. Perhaps, the reason Pfiffner insisted on the importance of chief of staff is that the failure or the success of a presidency depends on the chief of staff.

Subsequently, Pfiffner talks about “The Institutional Presidency.” Here, he examines the presidential branch as described by scholar Nelson Polsby. It comprises of the White House Office and the
Executive Office of the President. The author explores the size and complexity aspects of the six units of the presidency. The White House Office staff has grown from approximately sixty members during Carter, Reagan and Bush administration to around 400-500. Pfiffner concludes that the difference in staff number is as a result of response to the changing political and governmental environment. Apart from giving advice to the president, Pfiffner is worried about the quality of advice given by the huge number of staff in the White House. Pfiffner also analyzes the Cabinet and the Executive branch and examines the procedure through which the cabinet turns down the primary advisory role to the President during the 1960s and 1970s. The president began integrating policy control in the White House. Cabinet secretaries and other sub-cabinet level appointees greatly influenced the presidency during the 1960s. The book is also elaborating the manner in which Pfiffner introduces a discussion on the origin of the cabinet. He says that the cabinet is a deliberative body, which creates the conflict between departmental secretaries and the White House staff. He reviews the president appointment system on how he appoints competent individuals to lead the government. He claims that, for a successful presidency, the president should minimize his involvement in non-presidential matters and delegates them to the cabinet, delegate the sub-cabinet appointments to the department and agency heads and collaborate with the career bureaucracy. The author also explores the transformation of Roosevelt individual role as a chief legislator in the 1930s into a fully professional office. He continues to examine how the president and the congress worked and the issue of a divided government. The author introduces five case studies of presidential leadership of congress. “Kennedy and the House Rules Committee,” LBJ Activist approach: the 1964 Civil Rights Act”, “Richard Nixon: The Politics of Confrontation”, Jimmy Carter: The Moral Equivalent of War’’, and Ronald Reagan: The 1982 Budget Juggernaut.” Pfiffner claims that the framers put congress in Article one of the Constitution in order to take over the national policy agenda.

Pfiffner continues to state that the president has dominated the foreign policy of United States. The president has powers to engage nations in war. He argues that the president has sent troops to war more times than the congress. Pfiffner reviews other constitutional foreign affairs powers. These powers include treaty negotiation, signing and termination, legitimate recognition of foreign governments, their ambassadors and prime ministers, and appointment of ambassadors to other nations.

The expansion of resources of the presidency and the constant conflicts of powers between Congress and the White House over national and international agenda has both positive and negative effect on the American people. Perhaps, this is the reason the author focuses on the negative effect and also examines two serious cases of corruption in the presidency that is Watergate and Iran-Contra. For instance, in chapter eight, Pfiffner touches on abuse of power and presidential reputation. He believes that decreasing cynicism and increasing realism in United States are important tasks among the American people. This can only be possible when the presidents stop giving promises they cannot keep and the citizens lowering their expectations of presidents. From his observations, Pfiffner thinks that high expectations of the president will continue, and this may pose danger or opportunity to the United States president. The question that arises is whether this will affect the United State president only or may affect other states across the globe.

The Modern Presidency illustrates unique challenges to scholars who conduct research on organizations. There is evidence of a classic bureaucracy, which is strangely receptive to the power,
and pressure of passing presidents. For instance, Reagan’s leading techniques became the center of widespread scrutiny. Samuel Kernell’s (2006) study, Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, documented that President Ronald Reagan was unusually fine suited by experience, temperament, and ideology to lead by going public (Kernell, 2006, p. 111). To Pfiffner, this is a tactic that sought to force conformity from other Washington presidents by appealing to their constituents (Pfiffner, 2007). This approach has been applied by various presidents in passing. Pfiffner also ought to understand that Reagan’s presentation as the Great Communicator, a title given by the media, became a standard for prospect presidents but also exposed the innate unpredictability of this approach to ruling. In this case, Kernell’s book is significant in elaborating modern presidency because it has undergone two successive editions and turn out to be a vital addition to the original Neustadtian opinion on how presidents carry out themselves in office to accomplish success. James Pfiffner (1996) convincingly disputed in The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running that Ronald Reagan’s success was moderately attributable to the widespread preparation that came after his inaugural ceremony. He gave him time to focus on the energy of the administration towards creating opportunity in the early months of an administration (Pfiffner, 2007, p. 159).

Students of political management will identify that presidential changeover are a unique trait of the American political system. Elected presidents spent several weeks organizing the administration. Administrations that have succeeded in becoming more methodical in their approach in organizing the office and the Reagan attempt became particularly victorious.

Pfiffner described various major approaches adopted in 1981 that were essential to the success of the administration. He states that Reagan established an effective White House staff organization focused on “triumvirate” of Edwin Meese, James Baker III and Michael Deaver. This people had early efficiency in running the President’s affairs differed completely with issues that occurred during Reagan’s second term, particularly when Don Regan served as a single chief of-staff (Pfiffner, 2007). The White House took over the assortment of political appointees based on individual and ideological loyalty and then prepared and arranged a system of Cabinet councils intended to organize contact with the bureaucracy (Pfiffner, 2007). By quickly controlling the budget after the inauguration, Reagan modified the bad budget created by Carter. This gave Reagan the chance to define his own priorities throughout his first year as President. He was highly motivated and centered on the legislative agenda by making use of any resources available. Reagan’s success was seen as a platform for other presidents. Pfiffner echoed on lessons from the Bush and Clinton changeover experiences, and discovered that a new president’s capability to make calculated choices relies deeply on the chance he gets upon entering office, not just the strategies adopted.

The age of modern scholarship on the presidency can, without doubt, be traced to the publication of Richard Neustadt’s Presidential Power: the Politics of Leadership in 1960. The outstanding characteristic of Neustadt’s analysis is positioning the president inside the white house. Perhaps the most prominent feature of that analysis was to locate the president within circumstances of numerous people whose support had to be acquired in order for a president to accomplish his purposes (Neustadt, 2007). It was the candidate’s role to persuade the public to choose him. Various presidential scholars sought to observe one or more of these interactions described by Neustadt in detail, with an aim to utilize, frequently techniques more consistent with behavioral political science. Richard Neustadt had a long experience and impact in presidential studies sector. The most recent amendment of Presidential Power comes into view in 1990 and with an increase of interest, predominantly over the past three decades. Presidential studies now expand beyond the boundaries of Neustadt’s inventive treatment.

The writing portrayed by James P. Pfiffner in this book is clear, easily accessible and interesting to other readers apart from political scientists. The high level of literacy is evidenced from his earlier writings. The graphs, figures, appendices easily harmonize the text. A conclusive listing of figures and tables at the beginning of the text would have strengthened the book.

References

Kernell, S. (2006). Going public: new strategies of presidential leadership, 4th edition. San

Diego, CA: C Q press.

Neustadt, R. E. (2007). Presidential power: the politics of leadership. New York: Springer

Pfiffner, J. (2007). The Modern Presidency, 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Pfiffner, J. P. (1996). The strategic presidency: hitting the ground running (studies in government

and public policy). Kansas: University of Kansas.

Pika, J. (1990). Researching and teaching the American presidency: an overview of trends. In,

recent trends in studying the presidency: Reagan and beyond. American Studies International, 28(1); 13-31.

Book Review

Assignment Due on November 1

For this assignment select ONE of the following books and write a book report on it. See the instructions below on how to write a book review.

BOOKS: (can be obtained from libraries or purchased on Amazon)

Larry Diamond, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World 

Paul Collier, Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places 

Fareed Zakaria. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition)

Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity
. New York: Free Press, 1995

James Pfiffner,.
The Modern Presidency
, 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2007.

Dennis Kavanaugh,.
Thatcherism and British Politics: The End of Consensus, 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Allwood, Gill, and Khursheed Wadia.
Women and Politics in France: 1958–2000. London: Routledge, 2000.

Fisher, Marc.
After the Wall: Germany, the Germans, and the Burden of History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995

Gifford, Rob. China Road: A Journey Into the Future of a Rising Power. New York: Random House, 2007.

Zhao Ziyang, Bao Pu, Renee Chiang, and Adi Ignatius.

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang

. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009.

Roderic Camp. Politics in Mexico. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013

Methodology:

The book review for this course should be approximately 10 pages in length. It should use APA format and be double-spaced with an 11 or 12 font.
To get all the credit, you will need to relate the book to topics and additional readings assigned during the semester. One way to do that is
A book review describes, analyzes, and evaluates the quality, meaning, and significance of a book. It is not a retelling. It should focus on the book’s purpose, content, and authority. A critical book review is not a book report or a summary. It is a reaction paper in which strengths and weaknesses of the material are discussed and analyzed. It should include a statement of what the author has tried to do, evaluates how well (in the opinion of the reviewer) the author has succeeded, and presents evidence to support this evaluation.
 
The following are standard procedures for writing book reviews;
1. Write a statement giving essential information about the book: title, author, first copyright date, type of book, general subject matter, special features (maps, color plates, etc.), price and ISBN.
 
2. State the author’s purpose in writing the book. Sometimes authors state their purpose in the preface or the first chapter. When they do not, you may arrive at an understanding of the book’s purpose by asking yourself these questions:
a. Why did the author write on this subject rather than on some other subject?
b. From what point of view is the work written?
c. Who is the intended audience
d. Scan the Table of Contents, it can help understand how the book is organized and will aid in determining the author’s main ideas and how they are developed – chronologically, topically, etc.
e. How well has the book achieved its goal
f. Would you recommend this book or article to others? Why?
3. State the theme and the thesis of the book.
a. 
Theme
: The theme is the subject or topic.
b. 
Thesis
: The thesis is an author’s generalization about the theme, the author’s beliefs about something important, the book’s philosophical conclusion, or the proposition the author means to prove.
5. Evaluate the book for interest, accuracy, objectivity, importance, thoroughness, and usefulness to its intended audience. Show whether the author’s main arguments are true. Respond to the author’s opinions. What do you agree or disagree with? And why? Illustrate whether or not any conclusions drawn are derived logically from the evidence. Explore issues the book raises. What possibilities does the book suggest? What has the author omitted or what problems were left unsolved? What specific points are not convincing?
7. Relate the book to themes, topics, research findings in other articles and chapters assigned in the course (such as Hauss, Dahl, VanCreveld, etc.)
6. Try to find further information about the author – reputation, qualifications, influences, biographical, etc. – any information that is relevant to the book being reviewed and that would help to establish the author’s authority. Can you discern any connections between the author’s perspective, life experience and the reviewed book?
7. Summarize (briefly), analyze, and comment on the book’s content. State your general conclusions. Pay particular attention to the author’s concluding chapter. Is the summary convincing? How did the book affect you? Were any previous ideas you had on the subject changed, abandoned, or reinforced due to this book?

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