An Informative Account of the Attributes of the Presidents in the Fred Greenstein - Book Report/Review Example

An Informative Account of the Attributes of the Presidents in the Book Fred Greenstein In contemporary presidency, Fred Greenstein has been in the frontline of all the keen observers with regards to presidential leadership (Greenstein 2009). In his book the presidential difference, he brings out a captivating and an informative account of the attributes of the presidents. He explores not only the qualities of those presidents who have served well but also those who have served poorly during their time in the oval office. He extensively looks into the cognitive style, political skills, communication ability, vision, organizational capacity as well as the emotional intelligence of each president. In his argument, he stresses that emotional intelligence is the most fundamental aspect in forecasting the success or failure of a president. All through his book, Greenstein gives several bottom-line conclusions on every subject. In addition, he offers a predominant theory explaining the reasons behind the achievement or failure of the presidents. In his new edition, he strives to assess the political regime of George W. Bush, who served for two terms (Greenstein 2009). The book goes ahead to explore the new regime of leadership under president barrack Obama. He particularly focuses on his style of leadership and elaborates on how this style can impact on both his legacy and presidency. He vividly illuminates a perspective leadership view and underscores the events as well as the qualities that streamlined the achievements and the misfortunes of the contemporary presidency. Each and every chapter of the book is visibly built and structured to give a background for every president before embarking on the analysis of their administration approaches (Greenstein 2009). The book is clearly full of significant events and facts. He tactfully analyses the presidential style of administration ina valuable and thrilling manner. Above all, Greenstein employs well selected examples in illustrating and justifying his position. His ideas are also well presented. In this book, Greenstein stays with his leading role (Greenstein 2009). He argues that presidential power entails the power to convince, using appropriate skills in communication, and not from formal influences or roles. Presidential success, according to him, lies on wise strategic controls. He adds that there exists a bothersome trust in the prospective of transformational governance to amend the ideas and conduct of supporters in the public and actors in institutes and suggests that this act calls for the need for change as a corrective measure. He additionally provides another idea of presidential governance, which should be centered on facilitation (Greenstein 2009).According to Greenstein, facilitation involvesacknowledgment and utilization of ecologically structuredprospects for change. His position apparently resonances the theories of strategy entrepreneurship advocated by Polsbywhile studying policy innovation. Fred further considers that presidentialorganizers can sometimes illuminate, strengthen, or directthe aspirations of the values, policy views and aspirations of their c constituencies their constituencies (Greenstein 2009). He adds that presidentsshould work at the brimsof building coalition. He justifies this claim by asserting that itinfluences some critical actors.He brings clearly the fact that presidential facilitators in most cases do not serve as eitherinfluentialmanagers of change or people who make events that can restructure thepolitical arena and consequently develop opportunities for change (Greenstein 2009).He however suggests implications thatare not equally applicable in all circumstances. Still, in as much as his idea on presidential power requires much conceptual clarity as well as underlying specificity, his vision ofgovernance as facilitation effectively brings us towards the examination oftwo compelling ideas. First, he opposes that presidential inducement is notthe fundamental for understanding success in an attempt to bring about policy change (Greenstein 2009). His second claim is that political environment together with the opportunities it is what greatly matters.Greenstein smartly employs an authentic justification to explore these two claims. He argues that the claim about presidential persuasionought to be abandoned and replaced by his fresher vision if some conditions are met (Greenstein 2009). These conditions include the following. First, persuasiveness fails to work as the key to success in those places it is likely to work. The second condition is when facilitation is realized in the least expected places. Fred first inquires whether presidents have managed to use persuasion toinfluence public opinion.He does this by looking briefly at George w bush and also at barrack Obama. He therefore comes to a conclusion that the two presidents with renowned skills managed to lead the citizens and hence transformed the perception of the political arena to bring about change. Fred insightfully widens his analysis and narrows it down to the tenure of George W. Bush (Greenstein 2009). The first regime for Bush gives an additional proof of the effect thatgrowing restrictions and hardeningcrosscurrents bring to the second-generation associates (Greenstein 2009). The second tenure reengages the evidence critical for the reform-minded understanding of the president (Greenstein 2009). It also contends that the much debated return of the magnificent presidency underthe forty-third president ought to be understood not in the standings of a relentlesseffort towards unconcealedpresidentialism. Somewhat, according to Greenstein,the imperialistic presidency showed by bush was the result of a confluence of historical flowsand of the inclination of late-regime governmental articulators to review his ideas (Greenstein 2009). He therefore arrives into a conclusion that the desire to overreach is a frequent feature of thelife-cycle of a normal regime. Fred proceeds with this tone he brings about a reflection reflectionsregardingwhether PresidentBarack Obama would be able to demonstrate his ability as a reconstructive or proactive leader (Greenstein 2009). In this chapter, he explores his ideas at their refined and thoughtful level. He first brings the character of Obama as anextremely pragmatic president, and then later,considers whether such a person can lead a fruitful reconstruction. He also give room for the possibilities that this reconstructive side of politicalchange could function under two other situationsmaking use of either anotherfairly less pragmaticconstitutionalist or an individual on the American Right (Greenstein 2009). His thorough discussion ofthe extremely low possibilities and many hitches of any of these three situationsbring abouta semi-dour atmosphere, leaving readers with the different sensation that hehas low prospects of ever seeing or coming across successful and reconstructive politics once more (Greenstein 2009).In fact, he seemsfascinated by another confrontational possibility. The possibility that he has hinted for quite a long period of time, namely, he proposes that there is a possibility that thisreconstructive kind of transformational leadership is currently diminishing and hence becoming simply irrelevant (Greenstein 2009). From here,he makes a step beyond his formerly environmental-centered arguments and guessesthat reconstructive model of leadership may have been outdated because as a result of anexisting misfit between the ideational doctrines of American progressivism as well asthe disruptive needs of reconstructive politics. Fred’s book is a representation of the best in the second-wave literature which is central to the reform-minded understanding of the presidency (Greenstein 2009). However, he, too, puts thepresident at the focus of the political order (Greenstein 2009). He therefore does not replace other’s views on presidential power as much as he tends to reinterpret its spirit. Still, he thrives in informing our understanding of the tactical skills essential forpresidential success. In the process of doing so, he recalibrates anticipations for presidential governancedownward. Armed with scholarlyand contextual focus on thebenefits of leadership style, a heritage of the reform-minded apparition of thepresidency, Fred demonstrates possession of a good line of criticism deemed necessary (Greenstein 2009). Furthermore, he is onto two effects thatare very worthwhile in the voicing of a third opinion of theAmerican presidency. Firstly, he justlymaintains that we needto focus on how situation contributes to success or failure in the attainment of policy change, if we areto appreciate the nature and boundaries of diplomatic leadership. Secondly, he advocates, without ever openly stating it that presidential expedition may, at some point in time function inside a location in time and space that is termed as critical juncture by neo-institutional scholars (Greenstein 2009). These are instants in which structural Limitations have reduced and the space for human agency is undoubtedly opening. In this way, Greenstein prepares individuals to appreciate their first policy-centric aspect of the political framework in whichpresident’s act. In the end, whether we fully embraceor assume Greenstein’s characterization of contemporary progressivism or concur with his account of the forty-fourth president,we remain behind with the cynicism that Fred had attempted to transcend right from the start of his book (Greenstein 2009). This is the same case that ended on a somewhat different note. Fred foresaw a graduallyconstricted world for political activities and the declining of political time. At this point, however, the reasons for hispersistent dejection concerning the future of reconstructive politics are has become clearer.Fortunately, he has not madea spotless break with the second-wave literature. Also, hehas not abandoned the hypothesis that presidency is, under whichever circumstance, theepicenter of the political order. Indeed, as waseminent earlier, Fred placesthe presidency at the political focus from the beginning (Greenstein 2009). Thishas been deliberate to promote the view that disorderly presidential action is the mainguide of the political time sequence. Greensteinthereforeneed not to rely onreform-minded reformists and scholars to succeed in moving the institution to the focusof the political universe around the twists of the twentieth century. It may thus be concluded that he has unconsciously rootedfirst-wave ideals into his outset of the origins of political time. Having such abeginning, we ought not to be astonished that pessimism finally comes todominate his review of the future of reconstructive governance. Indeed, it isinstructive that Greensteinhas located the sources of the decease of the political-time, in ideational residents at the individual presidential level. Work cited Greenstein. The Presidential Difference. Princeton University Press, 2009, (3rd Edition). ISBN 978-0-691-14383-5 Read More