US Presidential Leadership. When it comes to the greatness of the presidents, Milkis hall of fame includes Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt for the reason that their presidency has less to do with power than with purp
Leadership has been defined in many ways; as a matter of personality, as a power relation and as the process of which groups, organizations, and societies attempt to achieve common goals. Leadership is essential to the human condition and is both current and timeless. Too often our fixation on one individual obscures how other institutions interact with and constrain the presidency. Congress, courts, the bureaucracy and political parties each strongly influence events, leading to limits on the power of the White House. Pfiffner’s argumentation of history’s consequences combined with Nelson and Milkis’ argumentation of the development of the executive branch creates the dynamic institution of a modern presidency.
Pfiffner’s core argument states that once a president is in office, his greatness was established by the fact that every past president left the Executive branch stronger and more influential than he found it. A president must always first get control of the government to accomplish hi policy objectives. Thus, the White House must organize itself, establish a cabinet, recruit presidential appointees, confront the established career bureaucracy, and devise a legislative agenda. Pfiffner argues that the supreme challenge of this transitional period is that all of this must be done in a very compressed time frame and under the extreme pressure of press scrutiny and unrealistically high public expectations. Even so, he also shows that systematic preparation during this period can maximize a president’s opportunity at the beginning of a term. Opposing to typical advice, Pfiffner argues that a newly elected President’s best opportunity for achieving policy goals is at the beginning of the term. Although if he fails at achieving a positive atmosphere, Congress is likely to be more receptive to presidential initiatives in the early months of the a term, and public opinion is likely to decline after several months in office. Hence, showing the importance for presidents to start their new job in a dynamic manner.
