The President's Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Clinton

By Paul C. Light

Book Overview

In this third edition of The President's Agenda, Paul Light brings his acclaimed study up to date by weighing the successes and failures of the Bush and Clinton presidencies in setting a legislative agenda of domestic issues for Congress. The most noticeable development, according to Light, is the shrinking of the agenda and the absence of fresh new ideas. Explaining the emergence of "the derivative Presidency," he attributes this increasingly limited agenda to the problems associated with the end of the welfare state, the thickening of government, the problems of the budget, the "Reagan effect," and the changing nature of party politics. With Light's latest judgments and insights, The President's Agenda remains an invaluable text for courses on the American presidency.

"What has changed is the content of the President's agenda. Even under similar political conditions, both Bush and Clinton had fewer proposals than their predecessors, and both tended to favor modifications of the status quo over bold breaks with the past. Although there are important differences between the two Presidents, not the least of which is Bush's high proportion of small-scale, old ideas, the two share a pronounced tendency to look backward for inspiration rather than forward."--from the Preface

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801860660
• ISBN13: 9780801860669
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent!

Understanding how presidents make policy decisions in the modern political environment can help us understand the constraints operating serious change. Presidents often feel they have a certain agenda to push through the system: that is why they were elected. However, it is far easier said than done. Instead of coming up with unique ideas to address the problems of the country, a president's staff must choose from among policy ideas that have already been floating around. Presidents are often forced to choose between legislative success and good policy - they usually choose the former at the expense of the latter. Hence the country is stuck with a no-win presidency. This book is well researched through extensive staff intereviews and first hand accounts of the inner workings of many past presidencies. If you have ANY interest in the presidency, this is a definite book to have on your shelf.