Why presidents fail : and how they can succeed again

Title:

Author:

Kamarck, Elaine Ciulla author.

ISBN:

9780815727781

Physical Description:

xiv, 187 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Contents:

Preface : The crisis of competence in the American presidency -- Introduction : presidential failure -- The helicopters in the desert -- Ignoring the flashing lights -- We look like a third world country -- Space walks and crashing websites -- The buck doesn't stop here after all -- The voter's guide to picking presidents.

Subject Term:

Presidents -- United States.

Political leadership -- United States.

Political planning -- United States.

Executive power -- United States.

Executive departments -- United States -- Management.

Summary:

From the botched attempt to rescue the U.S. diplomats held hostage by Iran in 1980 under President Jimmy Carter and the missed intelligence on Al Qaeda before 9/11 under George W. Bush to, most recently, the computer meltdown that marked the arrival of health care reform under Barack Obama, the American presidency has often been a profile in failure. In [this book], Elaine Kamarck surveys presidential failures to understand why Americans have lost faith in their leaders--and how they can get it back. Kamarck, a White House insider and Harvard academic, argues that presidents today spend too much time talking and not enough time governing. They have not balanced three components of leadership that must be exercised to bring about good results: policy, communication, and implementation. Instead, presidents have allowed themselves to become more and more distant from the federal bureaucracy that is supposed to implement policy. After decades of "imperial" and "rhetorical" presidencies, we are in need of a "managerial" president. Kamarck explains the difficulties of governing in our modern political landscape, and offers examples and recommendations of how our next presidents can not only recreate faith in leadership but also run a competent, successful administration. -- Inside jacket flap.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	352.236 KAM	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	352.236 KAM	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

" At the beginning of the century, the majority of Americans were satisfied with the way things were going in the United States. And then a slow decline began, seemingly uninterrupted by changes in party or achievements by the White House. As the campaigning for the next president begins, the question we ask ourselves now is who will be the most competent leader? In Why Presidents Fail and How They Can Succeed Again , Elaine Kamarck asks another important question: When did Americans lose faith in their leaders? And how can they get it back?

Kamarack argues that presidents today spent too much time talking, and not enough time governing. After decades of "imperial" and "rhetorical" presidencies, we are in need of a "managerial" president. In her fully readable and accessible book, she explains the difficulties of governing in our modern political landscape, and offers examples and recommendations of how our next president can not only recreate faith in leadership, but also run a competent, successful administration. "

Author Notes

Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at Brookings and the Director of the Management and Leadership Initiative at Brookings. She is a public sector scholar with wide experience in government, academia and politics. Kamarck is an expert on government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD countries and developing countries. In addition, she also focuses her research on the presidential nomination system and American politics and has worked in many American presidential campaigns.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

In the Broadway musical Hamilton, George Washington tells Alexander Hamilton, who is fulminating about Congress's failure to adopt his proposal for a national bank, "Winning was easy. Governing's harder." Kamarck (Brookings Institution) presents a handful of case studies of presidential governance failures that illustrate how recent presidents' distance from and inattention to the executive establishment have caused the loss of lives, the decline of presidential popularity, and the growth of Americans' distrust of government. Kamarck argues that the requirements of "the permanent campaign" have led presidents to court the public to the point that they now often treat "the government [they] lead [as] an afterthought--until it takes down [their] presidency." Kamarck is at times guilty of overstating her case (e.g., the erosion of public trust in government has been driven by a number of factors other than conspicuous management failures), and she fails to explain policy implementation struggles prior to the permanent campaign (e.g., the Social Security rollout was so rocky, the columnist Walter Lippmann blamed it for the 1937-38 recession). This small volume does, however, make a big point: presidents need to talk less and govern more. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates. --Ronald P. Seyb, Skidmore College

Preface: The Crisis of Competence in the American Presidency	p. ix
Chapter 1 Introduction: Presidential Failure	p. 1
Chapter 2 Helicopters in the Desert	p. 17
Chapter 3 Ignoring the Flashing Lights	p. 35
Chapter 4 We Look Like a Third World Country	p. 71
Chapter 5 Space Walks and Crashing Websites	p. 91
Chapter 6 The Buck Doesn't Stop Here after All	p. 111
Chapter 7 The Voter's Guide to Picking Presidents	p. 137
Notes	p. 155
Index	p. 171

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