The Provisional Pulpit
The Provisional Pulpit

Author: Brandon Rottinghaus

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2010-04-07

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1603441956

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The cornerstone of the public presidency is the ability of the White House to influence, shape, and even manipulate public opinion. Ultimately, although much has been written about presidential leadership of opinion, we are still left with many questions pertaining to the success of presidential opinion leadership efforts throughout the modern presidency. What is still missing is a systematic, sequential approach to describe empirical trends in presidential leadership of public opinion in order to expand on important scholarly queries, to resolve empirical disputes in the literature, and to check the accuracy of conventional political wisdom on how, when, and under what conditions presidents lead public opinion. In The Provisional Pulpit, Brandon Rottinghaus develops a simple theory of presidential leadership, arguing that presidential messages are more likely to be received if there are fewer countervailing agents or messages to contradict the president’s message. He concludes, based upon the findings presented in this book, that the “bully pulpit” is largely provisional for modern presidents. The more the president can avoid the political echo chamber associated with partisan battles or communications, the better the chance the president has to lead public opinion. The Provisional Pulpit adds an important layer of understanding to the issue of how and under what conditions presidents lead public opinion. All modern presidents clearly attempt to lead public opinion; often, due to factors outside their control, they fail. This book is an exploration into how and when they succeed.

New Directions in Media and Politics
New Directions in Media and Politics

Author: Travis N. Ridout

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 567

ISBN-13: 1351364014

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It would be difficult to find a more interesting topic than the relationship between the news media and politics, especially given that Americans are now living in the "Twitter presidency" of Donald Trump. Academic research in the area of media and politics is rapidly breaking new ground to keep pace with prolific media developments and societal changes. This innovative, up-to-date text moves beyond rudimentary concepts and definitions to consider exciting research as well as practical applications that address monumental changes in media systems in the US and the world. This carefully crafted volume explores key questions posed by academics and practitioners alike, exposing students to rigorous scholarship as well as everyday challenges confronted by politicians, journalists, and media consumers. Each chapter opens with a "big question" about the impact of the news media, provides an overview of the more general topic, and then answers that question by appealing to the best, most-up-to-date research in the field. The volume as a whole is held together by an exploration of the rapidly changing media environment and the influence these changes have on individual political behavior and governments as a whole. New Directions in Media and Politics makes an ideal anchor for courses as it digs deeper into the questions that standard textbooks only hint at—and presents scholarly evidence to support the arguments made. New to the Second Edition Fully updated through the 2016 elections and the early Trump presidency with a special focus on the role of social media. Adds three new chapters: The Move to Mobile; Media and Public Policy; and Fake News. Adds Discussion Questions to the end of each chapter.

The Politics of the President's Wife
The Politics of the President's Wife

Author: MaryAnne Borrelli

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2011-08-15

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 160344422X

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As the West Wing has grown in power and organizational complexity during the modern presidency, so has the East Wing, office home to the First Lady of the United States. This groundbreaking work by MaryAnne Borrelli offers both theoretical and substantive insight into behind-the-scenes developments from the time of Lou Henry Hoover to the unfolding tenure of Michelle Robinson Obama. Political scientists and historians have recognized the personal influence the First Lady can exercise with her husband, and they have noted the moral, ethical, and sometimes policy leadership certain presidents’ wives have offered. Nonetheless, scholars and commentators alike have treated the personal relationship and the professional relationship as overlapping. Borrelli offers a compelling counter-perspective: that the president’s wife exercises power intrinsic to her role within the administration. Like others within the presidency, she has sometimes presented the president’s views to constituents and sometimes presented constituents’ views to the president, thus taking on a representative function within the system. In mediating president-constituent relationships, she has given a historical and social frame to the presidency that has enhanced its symbolic representation; she has served as a gender role model, enriching descriptive representation in the executive branch; and she has participated in policy initiatives to strengthen an administration’s substantive representation. These contributions have been controversial, as might be predicted for a gender outsider, but they have unquestionably made the First Lady a representative of and to the president and, by extension, the president’s administration.

Speaking with the People's Voice
Speaking with the People's Voice

Author: Jeffrey P. Mehltretter Drury

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2014-03-19

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1623491355

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The role of public opinion in American democracy has been a central concern of scholars who frequently examine how public opinion influences policy makers and how politicians, especially presidents, try to shape public opinion. But in Speaking with the People’s Voice: How Presidents Invoke Public Opinion, Jeffrey P. Mehltretter Drury asks a different question that adds an important new dimension to the study of public opinion: How do presidents rhetorically use public opinion in their speeches? In a careful analysis supported by case studies and discrete examples, Drury develops the concept of “invoked public opinion” to study the modern presidents’ use of public opinion as a rhetorical resource. He defines the term as “the rhetorical representation of the beliefs and values of US citizens.” Speaking with the People’s Voice considers both the strategic and democratic value of invoked public opinion by analyzing how modern presidents argumentatively deploy references to the beliefs and values of US citizens as persuasive appeals as well as acts of political representation in their nationally televised speeches.

Presidential Road Show
Presidential Road Show

Author: Diane J. Heith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-03

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1317253523

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In The Presidential Road Show: Public Leadership in an Era of Party Polarization and Media Fragmentation, Diane J. Heith evaluates presidential leadership by critically examining a fundamental tenet of the presidency: the national nature of the office. The fact that the entire nation votes for the office seemingly imbues the presidency with leadership opportunities that rest on appeals to the mass public. Yet, presidents earn the office not by appealing to the nation but rather by assembling a coalition of supporters, predominantly partisans. Moreover, once in office, recent presidents have had trouble controlling their message in the fragmented media environment. The combined constraints of the electoral coalition and media environment influence the nature of public leadership presidents can exercise. Using a data set containing not only speech content but also the classification of the audience, Diane J. Heith finds that rhetorical leadership is constituency driven and targets audiences differently. Comparing tone, content, and tactics of national and local speeches reveals that presidents are abandoning national strategies in favor of local leadership efforts that may be tailored to the variety of political contexts a president must confront.

The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations
The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations

Author: Justin S. Vaughn

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2014-01-30

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1623490421

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Campaign rhetoric helps candidates to get elected, but its effects last well beyond the counting of the ballots; this was perhaps never truer than in Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Did Obama create such high expectations that they actually hindered his ability to enact his agenda? Should we judge his performance by the scale of the expectations his rhetoric generated, or against some other standard? The Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations: Establishing the Obama Presidency grapples with these and other important questions. Barack Obama’s election seemed to many to fulfill Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the “long arc of the moral universe . . . bending toward justice.” And after the terrorism, war, and economic downturn of the previous decade, candidate Obama’s rhetoric cast broad visions of a change in the direction of American life. In these and other ways, the election of 2008 presented an especially strong example of creating expectations that would shape the public’s views of the incoming administration. The public’s high expectations, in turn, become a part of any president’s burden upon assuming office. The interdisciplinary scholars who have contributed to this volume focus their analysis upon three kinds of presidential burdens: institutional burdens (specific to the office of the presidency); contextual burdens (specific to the historical moment within which the president assumes office); and personal burdens (specific to the individual who becomes president).

The Presidency
The Presidency

Author: Lori Cox Han

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-04-07

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 144087395X

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This work provides a concise, authoritative, and illuminating overview of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. This reference work surveys and explains all aspects of the Presidency, including the Founding Fathers' conception of the position, the evolution of the specific powers and responsibilities residing in the Oval Office over time, the relationship between the executive branch and the other two branches of the federal government, and the evolution of presidential election campaigns in U.S. history. It also discusses major historical events and controversies surrounding the Presidency and explains how the party affiliation of the president often colors White House priorities, policies, and attitudes of governance. This book is part of ABC-CLIO's Student Guides to American Government and Politics series. Each volume in the series provides an accessible and authoritative introduction to a distinct component of American governmental institutions and processes and shows how it pertains to America's current political climate and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

The Presidency and Immigration Policy
The Presidency and Immigration Policy

Author: Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-30

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1003801927

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This comprehensive analysis of presidential immigration rhetoric quantifies the frequency, tone, and efficacy of public mentions of immigrants and immigration policy by the presidents from Washington through Biden. The book also explores the intersection of the presidential role with that of the other key actors in the immigration policy system—notably the press, the public, and Congress. For students of immigration studies, presidential studies, and political communication, this book also poses the question of which is of the greatest significance to the immigration policy agenda: presidential leadership making immigration a top priority or existing legislative support for comprehensive immigration reform.

Comparative Political Leadership
Comparative Political Leadership

Author: Ludger Helms

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-07-25

Total Pages: 563

ISBN-13: 1137264918

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This volume has been designed as a key resource in the field of international political leadership research. Written by a team of distinguished leadership scholars from three continents and nine countries, the original chapters gathered in this volume cover all the major fields of political leadership, from executive, legislative and party leadership to leadership in social movements and international organizations. The special value and appeal of this book relates to its genuinely comparative focus that characterizes all chapters.

Presidential Power
Presidential Power

Author: John P. Burke

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-04

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0429972903

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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.