Stephen J. Wayne

The Eisenhower Administration: Bridge to the Institutionalized Legislative Presidency

Eisenhowers contributions to the modern presidency are primarily institutional and to some extent, stylistic: his reliance on the professionalism of civil servants in the Bureau of the Budget, his continuation of the annual programming process as well as the procedures for coordinating the executive branchs legislative role, his creation of a White House office to represent him on Capitol Hill, and his respect for Congress as a legislative body. What Eisenhower did not do is equally significant: he did not reject the model of an activist presidency, reverse the New and Fair Deal policies of his Democratic predecessors, or pursue his centrist agenda in a blatantly partisan manner. The Eisenhower experience demonstrates that incivility, inhumanity, and inanity are not inevitable consequences of divided government.

The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations -

The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations. By William G. Mayer and Andrew E. Busch. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2004. 226p.

Presidents and Prime Ministers: Conviction Politics in the Anglo-American Tradition. By Patricia Lee Sykes. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000. 399p.

49.95 cloth,

45.00.

22.95 paper. The authors are right, but … Front-loading has skewed the nomination process. It has given states holding early caucuses and primaries an advantage. They have more influence on the final outcome, more attention from the candidates and the news media, more economic benefit from the spending of the campaigns and the organizations that cover them, and more citizen involvement and higher voting turnout.

Presidential Leadership: Politics and Policy Making

In the Stephen Skowronek tradition of leadership studies (The Politics Presidents Make, 1993), Patricia Lee Sykes makes an important substantive and methodological contri- bution with her cross-national comparison of conviction politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom. She begins with a topology that dichotomizes two basic leadership styles: conviction and consensus. She carefully defines these on the basis of their goals and strategies and the external conditions that facilitate them.