Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan

In 1960 Richard Neustadt’s Presidential Power, which constitutes the first eight chapters of the work discussed here, set forth an analysis of the US presidency that argued for presidents to focus on the prospective enhancement and conservation of their own power in terms of politics as they actually occur. The book became a classic, representing the entry of presidential studies into modern political science. It was soon read by individuals holding the office and their advisors.

Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan, released in 1990, includes the 1960 book as its first part and a second part written by Neustadt as he wrestled with developments like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the spectacular failures of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, and the popular success of television-savvy President Ronald Reagan. Thus, Part 2 includes the additional development and defense of Neustadt’s original theory written in 1968 (Chapter 9), 1976 (Chapter 10), 1980 (Chapter 11), and 1990 (Chapters 12 and 13).

While 1960’s Presidential Power considered the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 1990 edition offers additional assessments of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan that respond to the contemporaneous challenges posed to the themes developed in the initial work. In essence, then, the work analyzes the meaning and use of presidential power from World War II through the Cold War; it also has just enough distance from the end of Reagan’s presidency to look back with knowledge of the collapse of the communist system that undergirded the Soviet Union for most of the period, creating a two-superpower world order.

Neustadt’s 1960 work is almost reminiscent of Machiavelli’s The Prince in that it clearly aims to advise those with elite power—those who have attained sufficient stature to become the president of the United States—how to cultivate a secure and expanding foundation for the power they can wield while in office. He elevates making choices as key to this endeavor: The decisions a president makes today will affect the power he holds tomorrow. However, Neustadt sees the presidency as “weak” in our system of government, which presents a necessary counterbalance to the pursuit of power. Ultimately, he views the presidency’s power as “the power to persuade” others in government.