George C. Edwards III

Americans currently choose their president through the electoral college, an extraordinarily complex mechanism that may elect a candidate who does not receive the most votes. In this provocative book, George Edwards III argues that—contrary to what supporters of the electoral college claim—there is no real justification for a system that might violate majority rule.Drawing on systematic data, Edwards finds that the electoral college does not protect the interests of small states or racial minorities, does not provide presidents with effective coalitions for governing, and does little to protect the American polity from the alleged harms of direct election of the president. In fact, the electoral college distorts the presidential campaign so that candidates ignore most small states and some large ones and pay little attention to minorities, and it encourages third parties to run presidential candidates and discourages party competition in many states.Edwards demonstrates effectively that direct election of the president without a runoff maximizes political equality and eliminates the distortions in the political system caused by the electoral college.

The typical legislative strategy for recent presidents has been to move Congress by winning public support. George Edwards analyzes hundreds of public opinion polls and finds that this strategy usually fails. He explains why presidents are frequently unable to move public opinion and suggests they use other means to achieve legislative success."That presidents use the ‘bully pulpit’ to exert influence in Washington is a truism of American Politics. What Edwards finds in this remarkable book is that the truism isn’t true, that presidents—even those at the top of their form—persistently fail to move public sentiment in preferred directions."—James A. Stimson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Every serious scholar and student of American politics should read this book."—Robert Y. Shapiro, Columbia University "Edwards has done it again! A bold, direct, convincing challenge to 30 years of literature."-Richard E. Neustadt, author of Presidential Power

Millions of Americans―including many experienced politicians―viewed Barack Obama through a prism of high expectations, based on a belief in the power of presidential persuasion. Yet many who were inspired by candidate Obama were disappointed in what he was able to accomplish once in the White House. They could not understand why he often was unable to leverage his position and political skills to move the public and Congress to support his initiatives. Predicting the Presidency explains why Obama had such difficulty bringing about the change he promised, and challenges the conventional wisdom about presidential leadership.In this incisive book, George Edwards shows how we can ask a few fundamental questions about the context of a presidency―the president's strategic position or opportunity structure―and use the answers to predict a president's success in winning support for his initiatives. If presidential success is largely determined by a president's strategic position, what role does persuasion play? Almost every president finds that a significant segment of the public and his fellow partisans in Congress are predisposed to follow his lead. Others may support the White House out of self-interest. Edwards explores the possibilities of the president exploiting such support, providing a more realistic view of the potential of presidential persuasion.Written by a leading presidential scholar, Predicting the Presidency sheds new light on the limitations and opportunities of presidential leadership.

How Obama overestimated the power of rhetoric and persuasion during his presidencyWhen Barack Obama became president, many Americans embraced him as a transformational leader who would fundamentally change the politics and policy of the country. Yet, two years into his administration, the public resisted his calls for support and Congress was deadlocked over many of his major policy proposals. How could this capable new president have difficulty attaining his goals? Did he lack tactical skills?In Overreach , respected presidential scholar George Edwards argues that the problem was strategic, not tactical. He finds that in President Obama's first two years in office, Obama governed on the premise that he could create opportunities for change by persuading the public and some congressional Republicans to support his major initiatives. As a result, he proposed a large, expensive, and polarizing agenda in the middle of a severe economic crisis. The president's proposals alienated many Americans and led to a severe electoral defeat for the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections, undermining his ability to govern in the remainder of his term.Edwards shows that the president's frustrations were predictable and the inevitable result of misunderstanding the nature of presidential power. The author demonstrates that the essence of successful presidential leadership is recognizing and exploiting existing opportunities, not in creating them through persuasion. When Obama succeeded in passing important policies, it was by mobilizing Democrats who were already predisposed to back him. Thus, to avoid overreaching, presidents should be alert to the limitations of their power to persuade and rigorously assess the possibilities for obtaining public and congressional support in their environments.

Framing its content within a “politics matters” theme and offering practice tests bound into the back of the book, Government in America, Brief Study Edition illustrates the impact that government has on the daily lives of each and every American, motivating students to become active participants in all aspects of our political system.

From routine operations to the workings of a White House in crisis, PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS AND POLICY MAKING examines all facets of the presidency in rich detail, with a special emphasis on policy. The authors use analytical prose and timely, fascinating examples to examine the presidency from two theoretical standpoints--the President as "facilitator," and the President as "director of change."

How do presidents lead? If presidential power is the power to persuade, why is there a lack of evidence of presidential persuasion? George Edwards, one of the leading scholars of the American presidency, skillfully uses this contradiction as a springboard to examine--and ultimately challenge--the dominant paradigm of presidential leadership. The Strategic President contends that presidents cannot create opportunities for change by persuading others to support their policies. Instead, successful presidents facilitate change by recognizing opportunities and fashioning strategies and tactics to exploit them.Edwards considers three extraordinary presidents--Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan--and shows that despite their considerable rhetorical skills, the public was unresponsive to their appeals for support. To achieve change, these leaders capitalized on existing public opinion. Edwards then explores the prospects for other presidents to do the same to advance their policies. Turning to Congress, he focuses first on the productive legislative periods of FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and Reagan, and finds that these presidents recognized especially favorable conditions for passing their agendas and effectively exploited these circumstances while they lasted. Edwards looks at presidents governing in less auspicious circumstances, and reveals that whatever successes these presidents enjoyed also resulted from the interplay of conditions and the presidents' skills at understanding and exploiting them.The Strategic President revises the common assumptions of presidential scholarship and presents significant lessons for presidents' basic strategies of governance.

This brief text, by one of the foremost experts on the presidency, explores how the Bush administration has attempted sweeping changes in public policy — without broad support for doing so — by taking its case to the American public more than any other president in history.

This access code card gives you access to all of MyPoliSciLab's tools and resources, including a complete eText of your book. You can also buy immediate access to MyPoliSciLab with Pearson eText online with a credit card atwww.mypoliscilab.com. Learn how American politics affect public policy. Adopting a public policy approach to American politics, "Government in America" looks at government s impact on the daily lives of Americans. This text introduces the main features of American politics and asks how should we govern? and what should government do? In looking at the evolving nature of our democracy and the changing scope of our government, "Government in America" helps students see that politics drives what government can or cannot do for the people. A better teaching and learning experience. This program provides a better teaching and learning experience for you and your students. Here s how: "Personalize Learning." Reach every student at each stage of learning, engage them in active rather than passive learning, and measure that learning. Refined after a decade of real-world use and compatible with learning management systems like Blackboard, the new MyPoliSciLab is a customizable digital learning experience that supports each individual student s and educator s success. "Emphasize Outcomes." Keep students focused on what they need to learn. A new design facilitates print and digital reading experiences and turns this book s learning objectives into a clear learning path. On MyPoliSciLab, practice tests help students achieve these objectives by creating personalized study plans. "Engage Students." Students each one is different. Reach "all" of them with the new MyPoliSciLab Video Series, which features this book s authors and top political scientists discussing the big ideas in each chapter and applying them to enduring political issues. "Improve Critical Thinking." Students get a lot of information about politics; your challenge as an instructor is to turn them into critical consumers of that information. Using interactive data to answer political questions introduced in this book s infographics, Explorer is a hands-on way to develop quantitative literacy and to move students beyond punditry and opinion. "Analyze Current Events." Prepare students for a lifetime of following political news. Both in this book and on MyPoliSciLab, coverage of the 2012 elections and more keeps politics relevant and models how to analyze development in the American political system. Get up-to-the-minute analysis on MyPoliSciLab s blogs or reflect on a theoretical case with a simulation. "Support Instructors." Make more time for your students with instructor resources Test Bank, Instructor s Manual, and PowerPoint Presentation with Classroom Response System (CRS) that offer effective learning assessments and classroom engagement. "

In this book George Edwards seeks a deeper understanding of the relationship between the president and Congress, exploring how and under what conditions presidents lead Congress, what we can reasonably expect of them, and how we should evaluate their performance. He makes a persuasive case for his thesis that presidential leadership of Congress is typically at the margins, not the core, of policymaking. Edwards focuses on three important resources for presidential party, public opinion, and legislative skills. For each source of influence he analyzes the president's strategic position, the theoretical potential of the resource as an instrument of leadership. He then examines presidents' attempts to employ each resource to obtain support in Congress, showing that they are rarely able to expand their resource base or manipulate their resources reliably. Integrating quantitative analysis with documentary and historical research, Edwards argues that the effective leader is not the dominant chief executive of political folklore who restructures the contours of the political landscape to pave the way for change but is rather a facilitator who works at the margins of coalition building to exploit opportunities presented by a favorable configuration of political forces in his environment. Presidents are not by themselves going to bring about major changes in public policy, says Edwards, and we must adjust accordingly our expectations of their leadership. The implications of his book are broad, and his findings are an important corrective for those who personalize politics and attribute more influence to a single person or strategy than is usually merited.

A timely look at the real costs of leaders not examining their assumptions.Why do accomplished and stable leaders frequently make calamitous decisions with devastating consequences for their countries—and other nations? We debate debacles such as the American involvement in Vietnam, seeking to understand why leaders pursued disastrous policies. In Prisoners of Their Premises , George C. Edwards III argues that the failure of leaders to examine their premises—the assumptions they make about the world and situation they are dealing with—cause them to ignore real problems or pursue policies that, in costly ways, deal with problems that are different than they think or simply don’t exist. Edwards looks at the role of premises in identifying (or ignoring) a problem in a series of case studies that range from strategic decisions in World War I and the Korean War to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Too often, unexamined premises color initial decisions to pursue a policy and shape the strategies leaders employ to achieve their goals, with grave consequences for their countries, organizations, and potentially the world. Timely and important, Prisoners of Their Premises demonstrates the real costs leaders incur by failing to question their assumptions.

Government in People, Politics, and Policy shows how politics influences the public policies that shape American society. Authors George Edwards, Martin Wattenberg, and William Howell provide a framework to understand the difficult questions that decision makers of both political parties are how should we govern and what should government do? By examining the scope of government, a key issue in American politics today, the authors help you see how politics matters in your own life. The 2020 Presidential Election Edition offers new narrative coverage of the major issues from today's headlines, including the 2020 presidential and congressional elections and the coronavirus pandemic.

Access the latest research in presidential politics without shying away from controversial topics in READINGS IN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS. This anthology includes 13 selections written by top scholars in the field of Presidential Politics and Policy, including George Edwards, Barbara Sinclair, James Pfiffner, Gary Jacobsen, Steve Wayne, and Louis Fisher.

Despite popular perceptions, presidents rarely succeed in persuading either the public or members of Congress to change their minds and move from opposition to particular policies to support of them. As a result, the White House is not able to alter the political landscape and create opportunities for change. Instead, successful presidents recognize and skillfully exploit the opportunities already found in their political environments. If they fail to understand their strategic positions, they are likely to overreach and experience political disaster.Donald Trump has been a distinctive president, and his arrival in the Oval Office brought new questions. Could someone with his decades of experience as a self-promoter connect with the public and win its support? Could a president who is an experienced negotiator obtain the support in Congress needed to pass his legislative programs? Would we need to adjust the theory of presidential leadership to accommodate a president with unique persuasive skills?Building on decades of research and employing extensive new data, George C. Edwards III addresses these questions. He finds that President Trump has been no different than other presidents in being constrained by his environment. He moved neither the public nor Congress. Even for an experienced salesman and dealmaker, presidential power is still not the power to persuade. Equally important was the fact that, as Edwards shows, Trump was not able to exploit the opportunities he had. In fact, we learn here that the patterns of the president’s rhetoric and communications and his approach to dealing with Congress ultimately lessened his chances of success. President Trump, it turns out, was often his own agenda’s undoing.

Learn how American politics affects public policy Revel(TM) Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy explores our government's impact on the daily lives of Americans by focusing on public policy. Authors George Edwards, Martin Wattenberg, and William Howell provide a framework for students to understand the difficult questions that decision makers of both political parties are facing: how should we govern and what should government do? In order to boost student engagement with key concepts, the 2016 Presidential Election Edition incorporates coverage of contemporary issues that dominate today's headlines, as well as the most up-to-date data.Revel is Pearson's newest way of delivering our respected content. Fully digital and highly engaging, Revel replaces the textbook and gives students everything they need for the course. Informed by extensive research on how people read, think, and learn, Revel is an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience - for less than the cost of a traditional textbook.NOTE: This Revel Combo Access pack includes a Revel access code plus a loose-leaf print reference (delivered by mail) to complement your Revel experience. In addition to this access code, you will need a course invite link, provided by your instructor, to register for and use Revel.

With the 2004 Presidential Election just around the corner and a host of critically important challenges facing the presidency today, the top names in presidential studies have come together—for the first time ever in a single book—to examine those challenges and explore what they might mean for the American people. Edited by George Edwards and Philip John Davies, this collection of original essays concentrates on the current Bush presidency and uniquely tackles the particular issues the presidency faces today. Fascinating, thought-provoking, and groundbreaking, New Challenges for the American Presidency is essential reading for anyone interested in examining George W. Bush's presidency, the issues that will figure prominently in the 2004 election, and the future of the executive office.

Book by Edwards III, George C., Wattenberg, Martin P., Lineberry, Robert L.

Book has a little scratches. Not very noticeable

Book by Edwards, George C.

Edwards, George C.

Before you purchase, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN . Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable. In addition, you may need a CourseID , provided by your instructor, to register for and use Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products. Packages Access codes for Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products may not be included when purchasing or renting from companies other than Pearson; check with the seller before completing your purchase. Used or rental books If you rent or purchase a used book with an access code, the access code may have been redeemed previously and you may have to purchase a new access code. Access codes Access codes that are purchased from sellers other than Pearson carry a higher risk of being either the wrong ISBN or a previously redeemed code. Check with the seller prior to purchase. -- This access code card gives you access to all of MyPoliSciLab’s grade-boosting resources...PLUS a complete e-book of your textbook! MyPoliSciLab is a state-of-the-art interactive and instructive solution for introductory American government courses that combines multimedia simulations, video debates, research support, and practice tests to make learning fun! This is the product access code card for MyPoliSciLab and does not include the actual bound book. Updated in a new 15 th edition, Government in People, Politics, and Policy , illustrates the impact that government has on the daily lives of each and every American, particularly its effect on students. Designed around the theme that “politics matters,” this descriptive text emphasizes public policy — what government actually does. It contains recent political developments and policy on the global economic recession and addresses President Barack Obama’s impact on our current government.