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The American Presidency

Lecture 1 - Approaches to the study of the presidency
Lecture 2 - The Presidency and the Constitution
Lecture 3 - Structural Approaches to the Study of the Presidency: Skowronek's Developmental Thesis
Lecture 4 - Other Approaches: Rose and Wildavsky
Lecture 5 - Personality Theories
Lecture 6 - Selection
Lecture 7 - Party and the Presidency
Lecture 8 - The Presidency and the Public
Lecture 9 - The Presidency and Congress
Lecture 10 - The Institutional Presidency: I Managing the White House
Lecture 11 - The Institutional Presidency: II The Bureaucracy and the Presidency
Lecture 12 - Presidential Leadership
Lecture 13 - Dwight Eisenhower and the Hidden Hand Presidency
Lecture 14 - The Thousand Days of John F. Kennedy
Lecture 15 - The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson
Lecture 16 - Richard Nixon: Rise and Fall
Lecture 17 - Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter: A moralist in the White House
Lecture 18 - Ronald Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
Lecture 19 - George Bush Snr: A Guardianship Presidency?
Lecture 20 - Bill Clinton: Personality and Policy
Lecture 21 - George Bush Jnr and the Politics of Necessity

Lecture 1 - Approaches to the study of the presidency

The importance of studying the presidency varies over time. Both Carter and Bush Snr were not very interesting compared to many other presidents. No one now disputes the presidency as being unimportant. Currently people are sharply divided in their views of the president. More recently, the US has become so powerful globally with no power rival with the demise of the Russian power. The president is also a unitary executive and it is hard to remove one if he is bad. The party cannot remove them. The president is constrained by the constitution, courts, federalism, separation of powers and public opinion.

Historical - The president can be studied by looking at each president chronologically. It was studied this way up to the 1930s.

Quantitative - looking at public opinion data and president support schools per policy. You can see how divided the government is from this. This does not give a complete indication of the presidential situation.

Biographical/personality - There has been a lot written about the presidents. Presidents can be categorised into 4 types (David Barber). You have to take into account of the broader social and environmental limitations that a president may have faced.

Bargaining model (Richard Neustadt) - This is to understand presidential power by looking beyond the constitutional limits and powers of the office. (article 2) Presidents use the power to persuade and Neustadt sees the using of constitutional powers as a failure of the president's leadership skills. (paradigmatic - leaders rated by their powers to persuade).

Structural/developmental - they try to include the overall historical context. New Deal regime - rise of the democratic identifiers in the US. It combined the south with the north; northern industrial workers with southern farmers.

Radical - This was popular during the 1960s. The president does things to suit himself to line his pockets for himself and his friends. This relates also to the populist fear of big governments and the Marxist concern of the Bourgeoisie.

Lecture 2 - The Presidency and the Constitution

Two areas of concern for the Founding Fathers

Removing the president is only theoretically possible but can be constrained. Institution that has been critiqued for a long time.

Demagoguery - extremist rhetoric that administers fear, e.g. war on terrorism on Fox News. There are very few presidents are demagogues. The founding fathers were concerned with an executive who would panda to the people’s fears in the 18th century. They wanted to replace politics with administration. The constitution would depoliticise affairs through institution and role binding. Representation - ensure a republic government but avoid an overpowering executive, perhaps to avoid another George III. Direct or indirect election - (Talis) There was a fear of the uneducated populous appointing a bad executive so through the Electoral College system, it would avoid that. The elections were at state level and these selected for the Electoral College were seen as wise.

Areas of dispute

Constitutional Changes

12th Amendment - combines the president and the vice president to one election
20th Amendment (1923) - laying duck - Congress did not meet much
22nd Amendment (1951) - limiting the president to 2 terms.
25th Amendment - how to power is handed over if the president becomes incapacitated.

Prospects of Constitutional Reform

There seems to be little chance of reforms regardless of talk of Electoral College and removing the 22nd amendment.

Lecture 3 - Structural Approaches to the Study of the Presidency: Skowronek's Developmental Thesis

Chronological

Skowronek

 

President's political identity

Previously established commitments

Opposed

Affiliates

Vulnerable (under threat)

Politics of reconstruction

Politics of disjunction

Resilient (secure)

Politics of pre-emption

Politics of articulation

Politics of reconstruction - presidents come into a threatened regime (Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln). There are opportunities to change things and the dominant interests are discredited. The constitution changes very little but social things do. There is a dominant coalition that shapes society. 1920s - Republicans business/agricultural interests (isolationist, laissez-faire)

Politics of disjunction - a president is affiliated to a regime that was disintegrating ( Hoover, James Buchanan, Jimmy Carter). Carter tried to implement Great Society principles in a country that did not want it.

Politics of articulation - you can do something as it is secure to but you go too far (Teddy Roosevelt) If you use the powers with your own intentions, it can create tensions.

Politics of pre-emption - (Woodrow Wilson, Nixon) - presidents can propose the current stable beliefs and structures.

The president's powers have increased and become a global leader but the authority has not.

Critique

If you are in a permanent pre-emption, then the theory is not much use. A lot of this theory hangs on the New Deal and doesn't apply to the more recent presidents.

Lecture 4 - Other Approaches: Rose and Wildavsky

Two Presidency Thesis - Wildavsky

1964 - Presidents naturally have greater difficultly domestically than internationally. Before the Cold War, presidents got their way on foreign policy. The world is a dangerous place and only a unitary president could handle a crisis as commander in chief. There is little rival for power in foreign policy.

1974 - After the War Powers Act and Vietnam - foreign policy from Vietnam onwards became more public through the media. Congress by the mid 1970s was more involved in foreign policy by holding down expenditure. There was a blurring of domestic and foreign policies, e.g. economy, drafting (Breton Woods was gone by 1974) and makes it harder for the president to act unilaterally.

1974-1980 - (Ford and Carter) foreign policy was very hard here with the oil crisis. There was a backlash from the feeling of Vietnam and there lacks intervention

1981-1986 - (Reagan) he managed to do a lot more with Libya and Grenada.
The Reagan Doctrine - he wanted to beat the Russians but not all of it was actualised. Hr had more power but not that much.

2001 – Present (2005) (Bush) - Bush has massive power abroad with pre-emption. There is an American military hegemony. Bush is also not contained by the Republican Congress domestically.

Post-modern Presidency - Richard Rose

He divided the presidency into three periods:

Traditional presidency (up to 1933) - there was a very limited federal government and small White House. The dominant theme is an assertive Congress except during times of war (Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson). Coolidge for example only worked 30 minutes a day! There was a very small secretariat.

Modern presidency (1933-1968) - There was a rise of the White House Office with managing budgets, etc. Bureaucracy grows. Presidents work long hours as executives and foreign policy becomes more important. The US dominants globally.

Post-modern presidency - (1969-??) - There is a decline in the president’s ability to get things done. It is not power as Skowronek argues.

Lecture 5 - Personality Theories

Importance of personality

Personality has become more vital with the media. With Neustadt’s power to persuade, the right personality is needed.

Barber

A presidential character critique - oversimplification - reductionism.

The categories come from socialisation as a child.

Problems

Alternative approaches - Greenstein

There is a particular weight on one category like in Barber. Greenstein implies emotional intelligence as the most significant as you cannot do the job if you let personal issues get in the way.

Lecture 6 - Selection

Why is it important?

1932-1968 - FDR/Hoover, Truman/Dewey, Eisenhower/Stephenson, JFK/Nixon, (1964), LBJ/Barry Goldwater *, Nixon/Hubert Horatio Humphrey

* Goldwater - only candidate not a career politician with little experience.

1968-Now - Nixon/McGovern *, Carter */Ford *, Reagan */Carter, Reagan/Mondale, Bush/Dukakis *, Perot */Bush/Clinton *, Clinton/Dole, Bush jnr */Gore, Bush jnr/Kerry

* More candidates are from little political experience

There maybe a link between good presidents and their political experience.

History of Selection

To 1916 - selecting presidents was from the bottom up and selecting people for national conventions. It was done by the state and local level through caucuses. This was seen in the 1880s as corrupt and undemocratic.
1916-20 - states had primaries
1940 - 13 states had primaries. The period of the New Deal coalition with gerrymandering helped move back to caucuses (north east and southern states).

Hubert Humphrey didn't enter a single primary and still was the candidate of the Democrats in Chicago (1968). People protested outside the Convention. McGovern and Fraser reformed the Democratic Party to remove corruption and applied quotas for candidates from excluded groups. More radical people where allowed into the Democratic Party as candidates. However, they lost the election, as they were too radical so the Hunt Commission tried to soften the quotas and bring in experienced candidates.

Pre-primaries

Candidates have to advertise themselves before the primary.
For more information, see the 1st year president's selection lecture

Lecture 7 - Party and the Presidency

Lecture 8 - The Presidency and the Public

The transformed Presidency

The press used to be respectful of the president and keep things secret from the public. Kennedy was the first president to be live on television. There was more risk on the president but less spin made by the interpretation of the speeches. Interviews became significant and created celebrities known by the president. The press are more combatant in press conferences but thee is less awkward questions asked than in the UK. The president uses it to announce policies.

Public addresses

Used to sell their policies, e.g. Lyndon Johnson - support for Vietnam, Carter - energy, Reagan economy. The addresses are very manufactured and choreographed to give an impression. There is no requirement to show these addresses on television but usually they are done.

Public appearances

George W. Bush at Ground Zero of World Trade Centre site, Top Gun episode, appearing together with Tony Blair.

Why go Public?

It doesn’t always work though particularly with Nixon and Johnson pretending the US were winning the war in Vietnam.

Significance of “going public”

The economy used to be the large significant amongst the people. However, it has changed the nature of:

Does it help presidents shape the agenda? - it depends on the time of the public address and its setting. It has changed the sort of person who is selected as a president and who is elected.

Lecture 9 - Presidency and Congress

Constructional Powers

Chief Legislation

During the 19 th century, Congress made law and the president did not sent much of the agenda.
Nixon and Reagan - divided government with Democrats in Congress caused conflicts. Nixon - he impounded money by not spending budgets that Congress set. Laws were passed to ensure that the president spent the money.

Legislative veto - Congress can overturn a president’s interpretation of the law, e.g. Immigration and Naturalization Service - immigration and deporting law related.
Reagan – Environmental Protection Agency - the head of the EPA refused to implement the law on toxic waste and the removal of asbestos in federal buildings.

Until WW2, it was normal to send troops aboard from Congressional declarations but there’s now not been one since WW2.
War Powers Act 1973 - it was not very effective.
USA Patriots Act - (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) - ideologically supported by Republicans.

Executive privilege - this is keeping information a secret for the benefit of the executive.
Veto - the president does not sign a bill and lets it die

Agenda setting by the president

Divided government relates to the amount of vetoes used. Eisenhower, Carter, Bush Snr, Clinton lacked a coherent set of beliefs that underpinned the agenda. LBJ - New Deal, Reagan - low tax. Vetoes suggest that it is Congress setting the agenda.

Leadership (and the president) versus broader historical context

FDR - did he set the agenda or was it a result of needing to do something in policy?
LBJ - leadership skills helped pass Medicare laws rather than only a sign of historical context.
Reagan - he had a very coherent view of his ideology and agenda but mostly in the first term. This was during times of a divided government.
GW. Bush - Congress and the president are ideologically in sync.

Lecture 10 - he Institutional Presidency: I Managing the White House

Origins

Brownlow Commission - the president needed more assistance leading to the Executive Reform Act 1939. Executive Office of the President includes Office of Management and Budget. They are mandated by Congress. The White House is free from confessional control on the whole.

Chief of Staff

Not all presidents have had a chief of staff such as LBJ and Carter up to 1979. A lot of these people are seen as the power behind the president.

Eisenhower - Sherman Adams had a very strong control over domestic policy. He was very aggressive in controlling access to the President which was controversial at the time. He made many enemies in his party and was forced to resign.
Nixon - Bob Holden - he was a gatekeeper.
Carter tried without a chief of staff but found it a problem and so eventually appointed one.
Reagan - James Baker - he was loyal to the president and understood Reagan’s ideology.
Clinton - during the time in office, he had four chief of staffs.
Bush - he tries to go straight to the cabinet members rather than go through a chief of staff.

National Security Adviser - the NSA has only about 15 assistants so isn’t constrained much by bureaucracy.
Secretary of State - chief diplomat of the US.

Problems

Centralisation - the president is a unitary figure.
External - can be tension between the White House and the broader Washington. The White House versus the public opinion/media and Congress.
Internal - conflicts between personalities and advisors.
Politicisation - the civil service are political. Reagan and Bush 43 have put in political figures into the government, e.g. people who support a free-market economy policy in the Office of Management and Budget.

Continuity and Intelligence

Clinton - he had 4 chief of staffs in 8 years.
You need a staff that is in tune with the president so he gets the right information to make good decisions.

Lecture 11 - The Institutional Presidency: II The Bureaucracy and the Presidency

President

Description

Vision

FDR

Feuding fraternity

Yes

Harry Truman

Management by transgression

Yes

Eisenhower

Staff-line model

?

JFK

Gambling on groupthink

Yes

Lyndon Johnson

Tyranny of persuasion

Yes

Richard Nixon

Courtship with crisis

No

Jimmy Carter

Delegated confusion

No

Ronald Reagan

Informal competition

Yes (no)

George Bush 41

Collegial formalism

No

Bill Clinton

Campaigning, not governing

No

George Bush 43

Loyalty to the cause

Yes (post 911)

FDR - this is the first president to build a White House staff. He would set his staff off from one another. He was clear on his vision: “we’ve got to get America working, increase government and win World War two” of shared values.

Truman - he believed in big government with honest and loyalty based on facts.

Eisenhower - he was an ex-general and saw the president role militarily. He probably delegated too much to subordinates.

JFK - he tired to get people together to exchange ideas.

JBJ - he wanted to be the centre of all major decisions. He wanted to control and did not want descent. He was a rough abrasive person. Vietnam changed him where he was obsessed with gaining support for Vietnam.

Richard Nixon - he had a vague idea of what his vision was but there was very little discussion. He was very kind to his staff at the bottom.

Jimmy Carter - Great Society was over and he had no idea what he wanted or how to prioritise. In foreign policy he was a strong supporter of human rights. He was not able to distinguish with the important and the little things and wanted to be involved in everything. He had no chief of staff. He tried to have a management structure based on an isosceles trapezoid.

Ronald Reagan - he wanted people sharing his vision around him. In the second term, it was a lot more confused. Ronald Reagan had shifted to foreign policy in the second term.

George Bush 41 - he gathered with people who were like himself but had problems with vision. He delegated a lot and was a team player. Priorities were not obvious. He got emotionally involved in the first Gulf War.

Bill Clinton - he did not know how to prioritise and was slow at filling government posts. He lacked vision and was naive about teamwork. He was well liked and had a lot of loyalty.

George Bush 43 - he was very like Clinton but without the charisma at the start. After 911, he changed. He is above day to day decision making and he is surrounded by loyal cohesive people. It is unified around defence.

It is too hard to say one management style is better than another is but a vision is needed for something to work toward with not getting too involved in the tiny details.

Lecture 12 - Presidential Leadership

What affects the quality of a president: the person itself, the times and the institutional environment.

To understand leadership, you can try to distinguish between leadership and headship, e.g. a role determined by the individual versus a role that determines the individual. Some people are already fit for the role and others change it to fit themselves, e.g. FDR, Reagan and GW. Bush.

Neustadt (paradigmatic view)

The president’s power is to persuade - bargaining, negotiating, persuading. When presidents usually use command powers, it is either evidence of failure or trying to veto everything.
1951 - MacArthur was sacked for his insubordination to Truman - it shouldn’t have got to that point in Vietnam.
Eisenhower - sending in the troops to Littlerock.

There are a few times when a president gets to use command powers like the veto.

Control over:

The paradigmatic view assumes people are motivated rationally by gains and costs and does not focus on the normative. It assumes the president is a manipulator and a manager. Can the power to persuade conflict with the public interest, e.g. in war time. It underplays the context of the times of the president. Sometimes it is more appropriate to persuade the public rather than Congress, etc The power to persuade does not take into account charismatic personality and campaigning. However, Bill Clinton was bad at persuading in office but was great publicly.

Structural - Skowronek (power in present times except 70/80s)
Psychological - Barber - does not work in the last 25 years

Lecture 13 - Dwight Eisenhower and the 'Hidden Hand' Presidency

Background

He came from a dysfunctional family and born in 1890 in a little town in Texas. He moved to Kansas and his father’s business went under. His mother was very strong and a pacifist. The young Eisenhower was not very academic but athletic and ambitious. Eventually after a lot of failing of exams, he got into an army college. He married into a wealthy Republican family. He slowly but steadily moved up the ranks. He became an assistant in 1939 to McCarthy and moved up eventually in 1944 to Supreme Allied Commander. After WW2, he became the Secretary General of NATO. He was universally known but quite militarily moderate. He was put forward by Republicans as president to stop Democrat power. He won with a 55.1% of the vote with 35 million votes to Stephenson’s 44.4% with 27% of Electoral College votes. The Senate and House had a slight majority to the Republicans.

Context of Election

Paranoia of communism: McCarthyism - this was a period of the Cold War. Domestic issues were minor with a good economy and employment. Race issues were kept off the agenda.

Staff and Appointments

He made cautious and conservative appointment except the secretary of state and chief of staff who were a lot more political.
There lacked a network of Republicans to fill the places as they had been out of federal government for 20 years. People appointed were country club sorts of Republicans who were loyal. Eisenhower gave the people more authority than Truman did. He wanted complete compliant people with a buffer zone between him and the general public. Nixon was the vice-president and did much of the campaigning. Eisenhower was not favourable with Nixon and saw him as socially inferior and a bit dirty. Staff were function and efficient. Eisenhower relied on a lot of committees.

Policies

Domestic policies were quite benign, with not many difficult issues.

Domestic

Littlerock - Brown vs. Board of Education - black and white schools were ruled as wrong. By the late 1950s, there was desegregation. In Littlerock, the governor refused to integrate the schools. The national guard where sent to Littlerock to ensure the black children could get to school. Between Eisenhower and the governor, he agreed to back down. The governor went back on his word and troops were sent there to stop the protesting by the white radicals. Eisenhower felt it wasn’t the president’s place to deal with state level affairs and wasn’t interventionist.
McCarthyism - he was not local enough about McCarthy when he went around accusing people of being communists. Eisenhower let the issue lie on public.

Foreign

General treaty on Indochina (1954) - agreement to divide Vietnam by north and south. Eisenhower was looking for compromise.
Suez (1956) - Egypt is invaded and it is taken from the British and the canal is given back to Egypt.
Lebanon - troops were used to remove a left-wing government
U2 - Eisenhower had to admit he lied about having no spy satellites to the Russians.

Style and Vision

(Greenstein - Presidential Difference)
He tried to appear bumbling to give himself the appearance of being non-political. He wanted to be respected above politics. He was interested in results. He was not concerned with his place in history. Eisenhower wants to avoid nuclear war.

Clarity of Goals

He was very clear but did nit have many goals. He was very conservative in domestic law and in foreign policy; it was having no costly wars. He had no agendas of visions and was not ideological.

Verdict and legacy

He was the last of the non-partisan presidents and he wasn’t specifically Republican or Democrat. He kept the US out of foreign wars. It was a benign period and the epitome of it, with its stability and domestic peace and calm. He managed the White House in a way that couldn’t be applied today with loyalty and a hands off approach.

Lecture 14 - The Thousand Days of John F. Kennedy

Background

As a young child, he was forever ill. Kennedy was brought up by a very disciplined and organised mother. his father was full of energy and ambition and worked hard at becoming a successful businessman. He was not the best student but he was individualistic and popular. in 1936 he went to Harvard. after graduating, Jack joined the Navy. Kennedy further hurt his back when his torpedo boat was struck by a Japanese ship. He led his surviving men to safety. The death of his brother Joe led Jack to chose a political career where he progressed through Congress. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas.

Context of the Election

Kennedy beat Republican Richard M. Nixon in a very close race. in a televised debate, Kennedy had the edge over Nixon because of style by looking confident and at ease compared to Nixon. However, radio listeners thought Nixon had won. This shows the emergence of the importance of style in election campaigning.

Appointments

Style

He showed diplomatic style in the Cuban Missile Crisis to avoid a nuclear war by using negotiations. He was more decisive in foreign policy.

Domestic Policy

Kennedy promised a government that would emphasise racial equality and economic opportunity at home and democracy abroad but much of this wasn't fulfilled by the time he died.

Foreign Policy

Lecture 15 - The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson

Background

He was the son of a farmer who failed in business in Texas. He was brought up in a difficult economic situation. He has a strong mother and brought up surrounded by politics. He graduated from high school at 16 and was a high achiever. For two years, he bummed around California. He went to a teacher training college and was a good student politician. He worked as a teacher. He became an assistant to a Congressman and move through the ranks. He was in the Navy during WW2. He was JFK’s choice as a vice president.

Context of the Election

He wasn’t elected as JFK was assassinated. In 1964, he won a landslide victory with 61% of the votes.

There was some grief from the JFK administration by the public because of the assassination. Johnson was liberal and in favour of peace and civil rights whereas Goldwater was a segregationist, wanted confrontation with Russia and into right wing politics. Vietnam was not on the agenda in 1964. Johnson was considered the natural follower of Kennedy.

Appointments

When Kennedy died, Johnson inherited a White House team. Many people were kept but after November 1964 many of the Kennedy people were replaced. It was mostly the domestic policy people. Not very many powerful people were appointed and chose people that followed him.

Style

He worked very long hours and put in a lot of effort. He focused on legislation and was not too interested on its implementation as he was a legislator for most of his life. He saw it about making deals and was highly instrumental. He used a top down approach with him at the centre. He was manic, very intelligent with a high IQ and was a large man. He thought himself as tight and found it hard to admit when he was wrong. He took presidential failures personally, e.g. Vietnam.

Domestic

Great Society - Johnson wanted to make a mark on history through:

In 1963, he proposed up to 63 bits of legislation with 60 passing. He declared a ‘War on Poverty’ with an attempt to get rid of it through education. Oddly he wasn’t keen on welfare but he was more keen on passing laws to make himself look good since these laws were already in the pipeline.
Riots - Detroit - windows were smashed and cars overturned. Police could not handle it and brought in the National Guard with many killed. This happened in most major northern cities with large numbers of black people who had moved from the south.
Democrats in turmoil - with a conservative south with a left-wing movement in the north,it was however very popular in 1967.

Foreign

Vietnam - the army was a conscript army and was drafted unfairly and done locally. There were not many middle class people sent. It nationalised the war with 500,000 people killed. The morality of the war was questioned and seen as an imperialist war. The war was seen as LBJ’s war.

Legacy

It restricted the use of US troops aboard since so many people died in Vietnam with a reluctance of large-scale land based ward until Gulf War I. The Great Society moved the US forward socially in a big way.
Lessons - although he had a lot of good political experience, he was an old style president.

Lecture 16 - Richard Nixon: Rise and Fall

Background

He was born in 1914 in Los Angeles. His father failed as a lemon farmer. Nixon was bookish with a strong mother and weak father. He went to a local college and was bright and so won a scholarship to Duke Law School. Nixon and his wife believed in a work ethic. He joined the Navy and was a very good poker player there. In 1946, he decided to run for the House of Representatives. He was on a committee to root out communists in the government. He associated himself as an anti-communist. He was Eisenhower’s running mate and as vice president, he traveled a lot. In 1960, he was the candidate against Kennedy and was beaten. He was seen as ‘Tricky Dicky’. In 1962, he stood as the governor of California and was defeated. He was resentful and was thinking people were out to get him.

Context of Election

n 1968, he was hated by the people on the left. He was seen as soft on desegregation.

Candidate

Vote

Electoral College

Nixon

43.4%

301

Hubert Humphrey

42.7%

191

Wallace

13.5%

46

Hubert Humphrey - Democrat, Wallace - Segregationist, Nixon - Republican

There was a huge Democrat majority in the House and the Senate.

Appointments

He did not group many ideological appointees but many had an Eisenhower administration background. The White House people were the organiser sorts. Nixon got a liberal and right wing cabinet with appointing a few Democrats! Henry Kissinger as a national security advisor and had the ear of the president.

Style

In foreign policy, he had a clear objective through influenced of Kissinger’s realism. He had little vision domestically and a pragmatist. Foreign policy was clearer since he was used to it with Eisenhower. He wanted to defuse Vietnam. By 1970, he became isolated in the White House by his gate keeping advisors referred to as the Berlin Wall because of their German sounding surnames. He would make decisions on his own with a lot of drink. The administration became more hierarchical. Nixon saw life as a trial where you have to be strong.

Domestic Policy

Revenue sharing - he came into office after the Great Society with a liberal Congress. He couldn’t roll back the Great Society so decided to give money to the states.
EITC - earned income tax credit - giving the people on welfare an incentive to work. Taxes go down if you work.
CETA - comprehensive and employment training Act - money is given to local government to create employment. It was a disaster since the money ended up in corrupt hands and not used for its true purpose.
By the end of the Nixon presidency, federal programs were extended. He tried to remove liberals in the health and education, etc roles but it didn’t work too well.
Southern strategy - increasingly, the southern democrats were different to the northern ones. Republicans saw it as a way of getting the outsider southerners. This was done by going slow on civil rights in the south. Many liberals were fired in the justice department. It categorised the Democrats as the pro-civil rights and the Republicans as against.
Economy - it was a difficult time with stagnation. There was a move to a floating exchange rate.
Watergate - it took some time to link the break-in of the Democrat building to the president. Many people were jailed. In the summer of 1974, the House pushed for impeachment. Gerald Ford took office and pardoned him.

Foreign Policy

Vietnam - disengagement of the war. There was secret bombing of Cambodia. Henry Kissinger became the secretary of state. Vietnam withdrawal became a cynical political ploy.
Détente - Nixon tried to befriend China and Russia but it failed.

Legacy

Failure – categorised by a president resigning. He did not make a large foreign policy impact and couldn’t make a big domestic impact. He didn’t use the Republican Party to get re-elected.

Lecture 17 - Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter: A moralist in the White House

Gerald Ford

There was not an election. He inserted the presidency from the resignation of Nixon.
At first, Ford refused to fire any of Nixon's appointees in an effort to stabilise the presidency. This showed a slowness in setting his own agenda beyond Nixon's.

Domestic

Ford pardoned Nixon for any “crimes he committed or may have committed.” It has been suggested this was done to draw a line under the whole Watergate affair. The pardon allowed Nixon to keep restricted access to the Watergate tapes and did not require him to apologise to the American people.

Foreign

Vietnam - the troops had been withdrawn but conservatives who were strongly opposed to Communism urged Ford to give more money to South Vietnam to help that country defend itself against a final North Vietnamese invasion that everyone assumed would soon occur. Ford agreed. After the 1974 congressional elections, however, few members of Congress favoured more aid to South Vietnam.
Ford offered amnesty to men who had evaded the military draft, or conscription, but the program was met with skepticism from Democrats and hostility from conservative Republicans. Only about 20% of the draft evaders applied for amnesty.

Mayaguez - Cambodian Communists seized an American commercial vessel, the Mayaguez, in the Gulf of Siam (Thailand). The crew were taken from the ship and held hostage.Ford reacted strongly to this. Though US intelligence were the crew were, Ford bombed the Cambodian mainland and an amphibious invasion of nearby Koh Tang Island. This helped free the crew but more Americans were killed in the operation than were rescued.

Legacy

He pardoned Nixon and it went downhill from there. He used excessive force over a hostage situation. He also gave the impression of placing the interests of the USSR over America.

Jimmy Carter

Background

He was born in 1924 in a southern tiny farming community. He served one term as governor of Georgia.his father was a peanut farmer and storekeeper. He joined the Navy after attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. When his father was diagnosed with cancer, Carter left the Navy to take care of the family peanut farm. Though difficult at first, he turned the farm into a large business, warehousing and shelling peanuts for local farmers.In the mid 60s, Carter's mother was against segregation in contrast to the rest of the community who did not want black people attending their baptist church. Failing to gain the nomination as governor of Georgia, was a bitter defeat. This led him to a religious experience and he dedicated his life to God where he did some missionary work. It appeared that Carter, to gain the governor position, appeared to be pro-segregation but after the election, there was no racism. With his inaugural speech in 1971, Carter declared, “The time for racial discrimination is over.”

Context of Election

He was considered an outsider to traditional party politics. During the 1976 campaign he vowed to reform the tax system and labeled it "a disgrace”. However gave little support to a reform once in office. He viewed the federal government as “the worst, most confused, bloated, overlapping, and wasteful” in history and was going to streamline it. He however did not do this and instead of eliminating departments, he added the departments of energy and education. Carter promised to restore morality and honesty to the federal government. this was significant after Watergate.

Appointments

Style

From the beginning his presidency was marked by caution, conservatism, frustrations, and disappointments. Many reforms he promised were never carried out and some because they were abandoned by Carter, others because of congressional hostility. Opinion polls regularly showed that the public liked Carter as a person but lacked faith in his leadership abilities.

Domestic Policies

Foreign Policies

Panama Canal Treaties - In 1977 the US and Panama agreed to replace their 1903 agreement about control of the Panama Canal. These treaties recognized Panama sovereignty over the Canal Zone, and control of the canal itself, beginning in 2000.
Camp David Accords - Carter proved to be a good negotiator. At Camp David, he got the Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to agree a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt.
Cater formally recognised the government of Communist China.
He signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the USSR that set precise limits on the numbers and types of strategic arms that each nation would maintain.
Iran - the followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a conservative Muslim clergyman, forced Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, to flee abroad. The militant Iranians, stormed the US embassy in Teheran taking 66 Americans hostage. 13 were released but the 53 were kept as Iran demanded a US apology for acts committed in support of the shah, his return to face trial (though he died in July 1980), and return of the billions of dollars that he was said to have hoarded abroad. Negotiations did not secure their release or a US commando raid.
Afghanistan - (1979) USSR invaded Afghanistan. In response, Carter halted arms-control talks and asked the Senate not to ratify the second Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty. He also stopped US participation in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow but none of this had an effect on the USSR withdrawing.

Legacy

Lecture 18 - Ronald Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime

Lecture 19 - George Bush Snr: A Guardianship Presidency?

Background

Bush was born on June 12, 1924 and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. His parents came from wealthy Midwestern families. His father, Prescott Bush, was a partner in a leading Wall Street law firm and a Republican senator. Senator Bush was a moderate Republican who strongly opposed the party's far right wing. Bush graduated from Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts and joined the Navy. In the NAvy he went on flying bombing missions in Japan. He survivied being shot down over the Pacific Ocean. Bush went to Yale University and majored in economics. With his young family, re relocated to Texas where he went into the oil business.
Bush ran for the presidency but was defeated by Reagan but was asked to be his running mate.

Context of the Election

The Reagan-Bush program had given prosperity to the richest Americans but wasnt spread evenly to the middle and working-class Americans. Bush promised to extend this to all and Bob Dole was eliminated from the Republican nomination. Biush promised to veto any attempt to increase income taxes with his famous statement of “Read my lips: No new taxes.” Dan Quayle was the running mate.

Style

Bush was an active president who came to work early, traveled a lot and was on the phone all the time. He liked to collect information from around the country. Bush gave the presidency a more modern tone by jogging every morning around Washington and appearing before reporters at frequent press conferences. This helped create a popular president.

Domestic Policies

Bush promised to not impose new taxes, cut the capital gains tax, continue the Reagan defense program. He opposed gun control and vowed to try to overturn the 1973 ruling by the Supreme Court that affirmed a woman's right to an abortion.

Foreign Policies

Panama - troops are sent to assist military forces in a coup against Panamanian President Manuel Noriega who was linked with drug trafficking.
USSR - attmepts made to forge a partnership with them.
He coined the "new world order" phrase after the Cold War had ended with the removal of the Berlin Wall
Gulf War - Saddam Hussein launched an attack on Kuwait that seized control of 10% of the world's oil reserves with moves to take Saudi Arabia's 25% of the global oil. Bush wanted to prevent this. The mulitnational military action was called Operation Desert Storm. This lead to record high approval ratings for the president. It wasnt enough to win him the 2nd term.

Lecture 20 - Bill Clinton: Personality and Policy

Background

He was born in 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. His dad was killed in a car accident before he was born. Because of this, he is very concerned about mortality. His mother married four times. With the second marriage, they moved to a gambling area where his step-father was violent and an alcoholic. He left his mother when Bill was 14. Clinton excelled at music. He went to Georgetown, Washington after winning a scholarship. He clerked there. At 30, became Arkansas’ Attorney General. Clinton adopted an open liberal stance. In 1980, he was attacked as a governor for being too liberal and was defected. He became less radical with a move from being a Great Society to a New Democrat person.

Context of Election

n 1991/92, Clinton was the leading Democrat candidate. He stood against Bush Snr. His slogan was “it’s the economy, stupid.” Bush was linked with raising taxes. Both were seen as realist moderates in foreign policy. Healthcare, tax cuts for the masses and increase for the rich and the economy were the issues. Ross Perot was the third candidate with 19% of the vote but no college votes with Clinton getting 43% and Bush Snr, 38%. Congress was a Democrat majority.

Appointments

He was the first administration to include women and ethnic minorities to reflect America, although Bush Jnr has exceeded this. Not many people stayed long in the first administration with many scandals. Clinton was not a deep rooted Democrat.

Style

Clinton changed the tax system although it was changed again by Bush Jnr. He had a mixture of Great Society policies and policies to get re-elected and couldn’t decide between the two. He took great interest in the details where he got too involved. He lacked vision with ideology of what tactic to take. He lacked as a manager and leader. He couldn’t organise or prioritise. He was very likeable.

Domestic Policies

1994 - First time in 40 years, Republicans control Congress narrowly. It made it hard for things to be done after this. Clinton was charismatic and got re-elected against Bob Dole.
1996 - Welfare Reform (Republican motion) - this made people on welfare to train or get work (TANF - temporary assistance for needing families). The welfare only lasts 5 years. Clinton was bouncing off an assertive Congress. Agenda shaped by Congress after 1994.
Impeachment - through investigating some suspected dodgy housing deal, the Monica Lewinsky issue came up. He was impeached for lying to the public. He as not removed as the Senate did not vote yes. His popularity wasn’t affected by this.

Foreign Policies

Legacy

Lecture 21 - George Bush Jnr and the Politics of Necessity

President

Foreign

Domestic

Overall

Barber

Eisenhower * Agreement to divide Vietnam
* Lied about spy satellites to the Russians
* used troops to remove Lebanon a left-wing govt
* Suez Canal
* Avoid costly wars		 * Brown vs. Board of Education - sending in the troops to Little rock
* He didn’t vocal enough on McCarthy
* very conservative in domestic law
* Domestic peace and calm with a good economy and employment		 * Non-interventional in state affairs
Compromising - Indochina
* Lied to Russians
* Above politics and unconcerned with making history
* Interested in results
* No ideology, vision or many goals
* Non-partisan president
* Loyalty and a hands off approach		 Passive positive
JFK     * Get people together to exchange ideas. Active positive
LBJ * Vietnam - conscript army * Johnson was liberal and in favour of peace and civil rights
* Passing masses of civil rights laws
* War on Poverty
* Moved the US forward socially		 * He wasn’t elected as JFK was assassinated.
* worked very long hours and put in lots of effort
* focused on passing legislation
* couldn’t admit to being wrong, e.g. Vietnam
* wanted to make a name for himself		  
Nixon * Clear objective of Kissinger’s realism
* Wanted to defuse Vietnam		 * Watergate
* Involved in rooting out communists
* Economic stagnation		 * Failure as he resigned
* Low impact on both foreign and domestic policy
* Resentful thinking people are out to get him
* Isolated by his ‘Berlin Wall’ gatekeepers
* Many decisions made whilst drinking		 Active negative
Ford     Pardoned Nixon  
Carter * Camp David Accords - good negotiator to create peace Israel and Egypt.
* Iran - failed to get all the embassy hostages freed
* Panama canal agreement		 * Relationship with Congress was often strained.
* Substantially increased the % of minorities and women in high-level bureaucratic and judicial positions
* Discouraged oil dependency and encouraged alternative energies.
* measures to deal with inflation were ineffective.		 * Moralist - trying to restore honestly and morality to the govt.
* political outsider
* Many reforms promised never carried out, as they were either abandoned or congressional hostility. Liked as a person but not as a leader.		  
Bush 41 * Realist Moderate
* Gulf War		 * “Read my lips, no new taxes” * Active president, who came to work early.
* Liked to collect info from around the country
* the government is not the enemy		  
Bill Clinton * Realist Moderate
* Bosnia
* Kosovo
* Humanitarian intervention
* Foreign policy not too important		 * “It’s the economy, stupid”
* Impeachment
* Healthcare reform failure
* Created a budget surplus		 * Confused policies between Great Society and re-election.
* Great interest in details.
* Lacked vision
* Lacked as a manager and leader.
* He couldn’t organise or prioritise.
* He was very likeable.
* Campaigning, not governing
* Old style politician in a new style political environment		  

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