Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T21:57:08.035Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Presidency, Democratic Reform, and Constitutional Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2022

Sidney M. Milkis
Sidney M. Milkis*
Affiliation:
Brandeis University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recent events have rendered the politics and governance of the American presidency a source of scorn and derision. While the nation seeks to come to terms with problems of the most serious magnitude in domestic and foreign affairs, the incumbent of the nation's highest office is crippled by a byzantine arms scandal. Moreover, the candidacy of the opposition's “front-runner” for the 1988 presidential nomination has been derailed by a scandal sufficiently salacious to displace as the focus of the media's attention the first week of congressional hearings that are investigating the Iran-Contra affair.

These developments represent an extraordinarily sharp shift in perceptions about the state of the presidency and American politics. Until the Iran-Contra revelations, many statesmen and scholars credited the Reagan Administration with suspending the paralysis that seemed to grip the nation during the post-Watergate years. For example, a survey of political scientists carried out by the National Journal in 1985 revealed that even many scholars who opposed Reagan's policies granted that the president had shown impressive leadership ability in dominating the government's agenda and mastering the Congress (National Journal, April 6, 1985, 743–747). Yet the Iran-Contra affair has apparently spoiled the Reagan legacy, belying the prospects for an enduring restoration of the presidency and a renewed sense of national purpose. The rapid demise of Senator Hart's candidacy reaffirmed that presidential politics was once again mired in issues of personality and institutional disarray. Indeed, the extreme scrutiny of Hart's “private” activities highlighted the ongoing lack of commitment in American politics to a public philosophy, as well as the absence of institutional strength necessary to cultivate and sustain a coherent sense of national purpose (Brinkley, 1987).

Type
Articles
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , Summer 1987 , pp. 628 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brinkley, Alan. May 21, 1987. What Hart's Fall Says About America. New York Times.Google Scholar
Ceaser, James W. 1985. The Theory of Governance in the Reagan Administration. In Salamon, Lester M. and Lund, Michael S., eds., The Reagan Presidency and the Governing of America. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Croly, Herbert. 1963. The Promise of American Life. New York: E.P. Dutton (original work published in 1909).Google Scholar
Eads, George and Fix, Michael. 1985. The Prospects for Regulatory Realignment: The Legacy of Reagan's First Term. Yale Journal on Regulation, 2: 293–318.Google Scholar
Flaumenhaft, Harvey. 1981. Hamilton's Administrative Republic and the American Presidency. In Bessette, Joseph M. and Tulis, Jeffrey, eds., The Presidency in the Constitutional Order. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Greenstein, Fred I. Forthcoming. Nine Presidents in Search of a Modern Presidency. In King, Anthony, ed., The New American Political System, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
Hamby, Alonzo. 1985. Liberalism and Its Challengers. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Alexander and Madison, James. 1845. Letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793. Washington, D.C.: G.S. Gideon.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Alexander, Madison, James, and Jay, John. 1961. The Federalist Papers. Rossiter, Clinton, ed. New York: New American Library (original work published in 1788).10.4159/harvard.9780674332133CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Richard A. and Milkis, Sidney M.. Forthcoming. Deregulating the Public Lobby Regime: A Tale of Two Agencies.Google Scholar
Jefferson, Thomas. 1975. Notes on the State of Virginia. In Peterson, Merril D., ed., The Portable Thomas Jefferson. New York: The Viking Press (original work published in 1787).Google Scholar
Karl, Barry. 1983. The Uneasy State. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lowi, Theodore J. 1985a. The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lowi, Theodore J. 1985b. Ronald Reagan—Revolutionary? In Salamon, Lester M. and Lund, Michael S., eds., The Reagan Presidency and the Governing of America. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Milkis, Sidney. 1985. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Transcendence of Partisan Politics. Political Science Quarterly, 100: 479–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nathan, Richard. 1983. The Administrative Presidency. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Papers of the President's Committee on Administrative Management, Roosevelt, Franklin D. Library, Hyde Park, New York.Google Scholar
Piereson, James. 1982. Party Government. Political Science Reviewer, 12: 27–53.Google Scholar
Rabkin, Jeremy. 1983. The Judiciary in the Administrative State. The Public Interest, 71: 62–84.Google Scholar
Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1938–1950. Public Papers and Addresses, 13 Volumes. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Schick, Allan. 1976. Congress and the “Details” of Administration. Public Administration Review, 36: 516–528.10.2307/974232CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1969. Democracy in America, Mayer, J. P., ed. New York: Doubleday and Co. (original work published in 1835).Google Scholar
Tulis, Jeffrey. 1984. The Two Constitutional Presidencies. In Nelson, Michael, ed., The Presidency and the Political System. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Wilson, Woodrow. 1908. Constitutional Government in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar