Exploiting the Opportunity for Reconstructive Leadership: Presidential Responses to Enervated Political Regimes

Nichols, Curt; Myers, Adam S.

doi:10.1177/1532673x09357502

Cited by 35 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This proposition is endorsed by Nichols and Myers (2010) who argue political regimes may enter an ÔenervatedÕ state of high entropy marked by growing incapacity to resolve political problems. Such conditions typically increase in intensity, igniting political crisis and opening up the potential for reconstructive change.…”

Section: Regime Vulnerability or Resilience?mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…However, Laing and McCaffrie appear to share SkowronekÕs assumption that the emergence of a reconstructive alternative is an inevitable outcome of a disjunctive presidency. As Nichols and Myers (2010) note, enervation may persist under a sequence of disjunctive leaders. It is also unclear why a disjunctive leader would attempt policy experiments to prepare for later regime change or why they would prioritise electoral damage limitation over efforts to rescue the existing regime.…”

Section: Evaluating Cameronõs Premiershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Byrne

Randall

Theakston

2016

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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This article contributes to the developing literature on prime ministerial performance in the UK by applying a critical reading of Stephen SkowronekÕs account of leadership in Ôpolitical timeÕ to evaluate David CameronÕs premiership. This, we propose, better understands the inter-relationship of structure and agency in prime ministerial performance than existing frameworks, particularly those based on GreensteinÕs and BulpittÕs approaches. We identify Cameron as a disjunctive prime minister but find it necessary to significantly develop the model of disjunctive leadership beyond that offered by Skowronek. We identify the warrants to authority, strategies and dilemmas associated with disjunctive leadership in the UK. We argue that Cameron was relatively skilful in meeting many of the challenges confronting an affiliated leader of a vulnerable regime. However, his second term exposed deep fractures in the regime which proved beyond CameronÕs skills as a disjunctive leader. Research highlights This article:¥ Contributes to the debate about the best theoretical frameworks for evaluating prime ministerial performance in the UK. ¥ Argues that an historical institutionalist framework is able to address the major shortcoming of existing frameworks, namely evaluating prime ministerial performance in the structural context of the political environment in which holders of that office act. ¥ Adapts Stephen SkowronekÕs account of the performance of US presidents to the constitutional, institutional and political circumstances of the UK polity and significantly develops SkowronekÕs account of regime vulnerability and the characteristics and constraints of disjunctive leadership ¥ Applies this adapted model for the purposes of a systematic evaluation of David CameronÕs premiership. This identifies that although Cameron was relatively successful in negotiating the challenges and constraints of disjunctive prime ministerial leadership in his first term he made commitments which, in his second term, exposed key fault lines in the regime and proved beyond CameronÕs skills as a disjunctive leader to manage.2

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Section: Regime Vulnerability or Resilience?mentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Evaluating Cameronõs Premiershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Byrne

Randall

Theakston

2016

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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“…Instead of a new contentious Court ruling, the fourth phase coincides with the election of Ronald Reagan, a reconstructive president facing what has been called an "enervated," or weakened, New Deal coalition (Nichols and Myers 2010;Skowronek 2011). As Whittington argues, reconstructive presidents are the most likely to challenge judicial authority (2007).…”

Section: Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

Court Curbing via Attempt to Amend the Constitution: An Update of Congressional Attacks on the Supreme Court from 1955–1984

Nichols

Bridge

Carrington

2014

Justice System Journal

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“…8 Similarly, Orren and Skowronek note, we must consider how a new regime solidifi es its power, beyond merely breaking with the immediate past. 11 From the standpoint of this literature, however, Jeff erson's actions toward the army present a problem. 10 Recently, Curt Nichols and Adam Myers have argued that establishing a new regime is often a more protracted event that requires more than one presidency to complete, while Donald Zinman specifies a new subcategory of "heir apparent" presidencies within the broader category of articulator.…”

Section: P Artisan R Egimes and The J Effersoniansmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Federal Army, Not a Federalist One: Regime Building in the Jeffersonian Era

Adler

Keller

2014

J. Policy Hist.

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Th e presidency of Th omas Jeff erson is oft en seen as a moment in time when a new political order arose. Having defeated the Federalists, Jeff erson was largely able to mold the American state as he saw fi t. Stephen Skowronek has argued that Jeff erson should be seen as the fi rst reconstructive president, who at the head of a new regime had the maximum opportunity to reshape the surrounding political environment. Indeed, more than any other future regime leader, Jeff erson had the maximum latitude to act, with relatively few preexisting institutions in place that could constrain his actions. 1 Jeff erson and his partisans in Congress in fact used this occasion to change many national priorities: they ended the Sedition Act, blocked Federalistappointed judges from taking their seats, lowered taxes, and cut government expenditures.Yet this picture of an "order-shattering" regime coming to power raises a puzzle. 2 Th e theoretical expectation of a "battering ram" president able to bend the system to his wishes does not fully comport with Jeff erson's actions regarding the American military establishment. 3 Th e Federalists had built a national army, and then expanded it greatly during the crisis with France of the late 1790s. Th is force scared the Jeff ersonians and raised in their minds the specter of a British-style standing army that threatened the liberty of the people. Th ey oft en argued instead for a more powerful navy, believing in the old radical Whig ideology that saw naval power as suffi cient to protect the Th e authors would like to thank Samuel Hoff , Andrew Polsky, Bartholomew Sparrow, Samuel Watson, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Exploiting the Opportunity for Reconstructive Leadership: Presidential Responses to Enervated Political Regimes

Cited by 35 publications

References 47 publications

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Court Curbing via Attempt to Amend the Constitution: An Update of Congressional Attacks on the Supreme Court from 1955–1984

A Federal Army, Not a Federalist One: Regime Building in the Jeffersonian Era

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