The Presidency

Herbert, Jon

Abstract

The presidency confronts an increasingly partisan environment which shapes presidential opportunities to lead and presidential governing strategies. As the US system becomes more partisan, there are reasons to question our assumptions about presidential leadership. Much of the existing scholarship treats the presidency as concentrating its efforts in the political center, trying to win over marginal voters whether among the public or in Congress. However, centrism as a governing strategy has a limited record of achievement in recent years. Instead, presidents have come to adopt a more ‘partisan presidency’, concentrating more of their efforts on their own partisans. The chapter considers the Trump presidency in this light, describing his communication and governing style and then detailing how Trump pursued the partisan presidency. His ‘base’ strategy and most of his legislative accomplishments were essentially partisan—both in ideological character and means of passage through Congress. Despite the apparent contradictions inherent to a populist presidency vocally condemning the establishment while working with an establishment Republican Party, Trump offered many partisan services to his party. These services encouraged Republicans to support him and sustain his presidency despite myriad scandals.

Citation

Herbert, J. (2022). The Presidency. In Developments in American Politics 9 (117-136). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89740-6_8

• Online Publication Date: Feb 26, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 117-136
• Book Title: Developments in American Politics 9
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9783030897390; 9783030897406
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89740-6_8
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-89740-6_8
• Related Public URLs: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-89740-6
• Additional Information: First Online: 26 February 2022