Presidency and Domestic Policy

This book systematically examines the first terms of every president from FDR to Joe Biden and assesses the leadership style and policy agenda of each. Success in bringing about policy change is shown to hinge on the leadership style and skill in managing a variety of institutional and public relationships. Presidents are evaluated based on the level of opportunity they faced. The third edition of this timely book adds chapters on Donald Trump and Joe Biden and focuses on the significant domestic policy challenges of their respective times. For students of presidential history, leadership, and public policy, The Presidency and Domestic Policy provides unique insights into contemporary presidential leadership in a highly partisan age.

New to the Third Edition

• Two new chapters focusing on Trump and Biden, showing its policy similarities as well as differences from earlier administrations
• A reassessment of the domestic policy legacies of Bill Clinton (especially in regard to crime and the financial services industries)
• A sharper focus on racial politics resulting from both the Clinton and Obama eras
• An exploration of administrative approaches to governing domestically and unilateral decision making—normally reserved for the foreign policy arena but now applied on the domestic side as well (e.g., executive orders)
• The increasing linkage between domestic and foreign policy issue arenas, particularly in the areas of immigration, trade, and environmental policy
• An assessment of judicial politics in the framework of the four leadership dimensions presidents bring to office, and also in terms of the impact on domestic policy outputs

Michael A. Genovese received a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1979. He holds the Loyola Chair of Leadership Studies and is Professor of Political Science, Director of the Institute for Leadership Studies, and President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. He has been Fellow at Queens College, Oxford University. Professor Genovese has written over 50 books, numerous articles, and book chapters and has won over a dozen teaching awards, including the American Political Science Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Todd L. Belt received a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2003. He is Professor and Director of the Political Management Master’s Program in the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. Belt is the co-author of four books and has published over a dozen chapters in edited scholarly books and over two dozen articles appearing in academic journals. He was awarded the John W. Kluge Fellowship in Digital Studies at the Library of Congress and has held visiting positions at Wellesley College and Kyungpook University in Daegu, South Korea. He is the recipient of two teaching awards.

William W. Lammers (late) received a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1966. He was Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California. He wrote several books on the presidency and was a noted authority on presidential politics and federal policies toward the aging.