The President as Prisoner: A Structural Critique of the Carter and Reagan YearsThis book focuses, not on the Constitutional balance of power between Congress and the White House a focus that restricts analysis to questions of means but on the more unsettling and often unexamined question of the ends of the presidency and American public policy. It offers a structural theory which links what a president can do to the underlying interests behind and ideology of the capitalist state. Structural theory insists upon an encounter between theories of the state and theories of the presidency, and in so doing steers the field of presidential studies into largely uncharted territory. Grover explores the tradeoffs and limitations encountered by Presidents Carter and Reagan as they pursued the goals of economic prosperity and national security. He argues that the limitations imposed on the presidency are more complicated than the personal deficiencies of a particular person. Such structural limitations, Grover notes, are not merely constitutional but economic and statist. His analogy of the president as prisoner in this larger sense is compelling. |
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Contents
The Rise and Decline of Presidency Fetishism | 15 |
Expansivist theories of the presidency | 18 |
The restrictivist reply | 39 |
The Structure of the Presidency | 63 |
The missing links | 74 |
The Presidency and Economic Growth The Case of OSHA Under the Carter and Reagan Administrations | 89 |
A brief history of the Occupational Safety and Health Act | 91 |
The internal tension | 97 |
National SecurityNational Insecurity The MX Missile Confronts Two Presidencies | 127 |
The secluded history of the MX missile | 130 |
In like a lamb out like a lion | 139 |
The lion roams | 152 |
The structural inertia of national security | 165 |
Restructuring the Bounds of the Presidency | 171 |
Whose president is it anyway? | 179 |
Notes | 187 |
Other editions - View all
The President as Prisoner: A Structural Critique of the Carter and Reagan Years William F. Grover No preview available - 1989 |
The President as Prisoner: A Structural Critique of the Carter and Reagan Years William F. Grover No preview available - 1989 |
Common terms and phrases
action active administration agency American analysis approach arms authority balance basic basing become called capital capitalist Carter central chapter chief executive concerns Congress constitutional continued corporate costs counterforce crisis debate decisions defense democracy democratic discussion domestic economic effective ends especially expectations fact forces foreign policy goals imperatives important injury institutions interests issue kind Labor leadership leading less liberal limited Lowi major military missile national security nature Neustadt nuclear OSHA particularly party perspective political position presidency presidential power Press problem proposed question Reagan reason reform regulations regulatory responsibility role Rossiter rules safety safety and health Schlesinger sense serve social Soviet standards strategic strike structural theories thought threat vulnerability Washington weapons White House workers York
Popular passages
Page 6 - The President can never again be the mere domestic figure he has been throughout so large a part of our history. The nation has risen to the first rank in power and resources. The other nations of the world look askance upon her, half in envy, half in fear, and wonder with a deep anxiety what she will do with her vast strength.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The President as Prisoner: A Structural Critique of the Carter and Reagan Years SUNY series in the presidency SUNY series on the Presidency: Contemporary Issues |
| Author | William F. Grover |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | SUNY Press, 1989 |
| ISBN | 0791400913, 9780791400913 |
| Length | 232 pages |
| Subjects | › › Political Science / American Government / General Political Science / General Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |