The opening chapter introduces the book's approach as well as the institutional development of the presidency and its organizational structure. Chapters 2 through 6 provide an extended discussion of the institutional presidency, first examining the working relationships of the White House with Congress and with the media, and then looking at policy-making in differing policy areas. In each of these five chapters, Kessel introduces the actors on the White House staff or in cabinet departments or agencies. He then considers their activities, looking at those common throughout the institutional presidency — and those specific to the task, such as negotiation in foreign policy, coping with business cycles in economics, and handling projects and patronage in dealing with Congress.

In the final two chapters, Kessel asks what presidents have been able to accomplish. In Chapter 7, he evaluates, for each contemporary president, examples of policy success, failure, and mixed results. He broadens the analysis in his concluding chapter to examine larger patterns of presidential accomplishment. His conclusion: all presidents have mixed records, but in the aggregate, presidents succeed more often than they fail by a factor of 3 to 2.

CQ Press is pleased to comply with the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Please email heoacompliance@cqpress.com for additional information that may be available. Be sure to include your name, contact information, academic affiliation, and the title, author, and edition of the book in question.

Contact us at collegesales@cqpress.com if we may assist you in your book selection or if you have feedback to share. Thank you for your consideration of CQ Press books.

This book offers students a sophisticated examination of the presidency. It combines a strong analytical framework with a depth of information usually reserved for case studies. And best of all, it is the product of Kessel's own interviews with those both visible and invisible to the public who have staffed the institutional presidency over multiple administrations. What better way for students to understand a new president and presidency.

John Kessel's new study shows us a fresh way of thinking about the multi-faceted presidency. There are many books about presidents as individuals, and even some useful studies of White House staffing; but Kessel offers a compelling conceptual focus for understanding how presidents organize the White House to deal with their multiple publics. Without leaving out what happens in the Oval Office, Kessel leads readers on a guided tour of the White House's key functional staff offices, explaining how these interact with their external client communities. Adding extensive new research to a lifetime of fruitful scholarship, Kessel explores White House relations with Congress, the media, and domestic, economic, and foreign policy communities. Having examined these diverse activities, he proceeds to assess modern presidents' patterns of accomplishment - an exercise whose results are at variance with the typical anecdote-laden discussions. Meticulously researched and crisply presented, here is a book that really succeeds in resolving its subject's essential dualism: presidents versus the presidency.

John H. Kessel (Ph.D., Columbia University) is professor emeritus at Ohio State University. His extensive research has produced many books and journal articles. His books on the presidency began with The Domestic Presidency (1975), and continued with Presidential Campaign Politics (1980), Presidential Parties (1984) and Researching the Presidency: Vital Questions, New Approaches (1993; co-edited with George C. Edwards III and Bert A. Rockman). During his distinguished career, he has served as editor of American Journal of Political Science, president of the Midwest Political Science Association, president of the Presidency Research Group, and a member of the Executive Council of the American Political Science Association. He has been a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and has been awarded several National Science Foundation grants.