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" Reconsidering Neustadt: "
Byrne, Sean J.
Bianco, William
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1114332
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2406966182
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| Main Entry
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Bianco, William
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Byrne, Sean J.
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| Title & Author
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Reconsidering Neustadt:\ Byrne, Sean J.Bianco, William
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| College
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Indiana University
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| Date
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2020
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| student score
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2020
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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487
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| Abstract
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Richard Neustadt wrote his book, Presidential Power, to fill the gap that existed between the academic literature chronicling the presidency, and what he had experienced in the White House. Sixty years later, it is still recognized as the most significant treatise ever written on the use of presidential power and when reviewing scholarly papers, articles and books on presidential leadership and power it is unusual to not find the authors using Presidential Power as their start point or to anchor their arguments. Presidential Power was considered revolutionary at the time it was published and established a new paradigm concerning how the presidency was perceived and studied, shifting the focus from a strict constitutional perspective to one based more on bargaining and persuading. This dissertation details and analyzes Neustadt’s writings to understand their place in the scholarly literature and their impact on presidential behavior. Next it explains the impact changes in the political environment have had on presidential behavior as it has shifted from the persuasive and idealized presidency of Franklin Roosevelt that Neustadt used as his model, to the more unilateral, unitary and authoritarian patterns that have been witnessed over the last 20 years. It then identifies whether these changes reflect aberrations of Neustadt’s theories, or of a new paradigm. In completing my analysis, I conducted an empirical test of Neustadt’s theories, and then documented the evolution of presidential behavior from the persuasive model presented by Neustadt to the more unilateral and unitary behavior seen today. I found that while Neustadt’s theories continue to be of interest unless there is a dramatic return to a more collaborative and less polarized governance model, they should be viewed primarily from an historical perspective. When Neustadt published Presidential Power sixty years ago, he presented the scholarly community with a paradigm change. This dissertation provides the groundwork to understand, explain and document the post-Neustadt paradigm change towards a more unilateral and unitary presidency.
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American history
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Neustadt
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Political science
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Presidential power
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Unilateralism
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Unitary executive theory
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