Ideologues and Presidents

by Thomas S. Langston

Overview

Ideologues and Presidents argues that ideologues have been gaining influence in the modern presidency. There were plenty of ideologues in the New Deal, but they worked at cross purposes and could not count on the backing of the cagey pragmatist in the Oval Office. Three decades later, the Johnson White House systematically sought the help of hundreds of liberals in drawing up blueprints for policy changes. But when it came time to implement their plans, Lyndon Johnson's White House proved to have scant interest in ideological purity.

By the time of the Reagan Revolution, the organizations that supported ideological assaults on government had never been stronger. The result was a level of ideological influence unmatched until the George W. Bush presidency. In Bush's administration, not only did anti-statists and social conservatives take up positions of influence throughout the government, but the president famously pursued an elective war that had been promoted for a decade by a networked band of ideologues.

In the Barack Obama presidency, although progressive liberals have found their way into niches within the executive branch, the real ideological action continues to be Stage Right. How did American presidential politics come to be so entangled with ideology and ideologues? Ideologues and Presidents helps us move toward an answer to this vital question.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412853637
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	05/30/2014
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

George C. Edwards III is university distinguished professor of political science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University.

Thomas Langston is chair of political science at Tulane University and also serves as feature editor of “The Historical Presidency” in Presidential Studies Quarterly. Published widely on the American presidency, civil-military relations, and American political development, he is author of The Cold War Presidency: A Documentary History; Uneasy Balance: Civil-Military Relations in Peacetime America since 1783; George Washington; Lyndon Baines Johnson; With Reverence and Contempt: How Americans Think About Their President; and Ideologues and Presidents: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution. Thomas Langston is chair of political science at Tulane University and also serves as feature editor of “The Historical Presidency” in Presidential Studies Quarterly. Published widely on the American presidency, civil-military relations, and American political development, he is author of The Cold War Presidency: A Documentary History; Uneasy Balance: Civil-Military Relations in Peacetime America since 1783; George Washington; Lyndon Baines Johnson; With Reverence and Contempt: How Americans Think About Their President; and Ideologues and Presidents: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution. Thomas Langston is chair of political science at Tulane University and also serves as feature editor of “The Historical Presidency” in Presidential Studies Quarterly. Published widely on the American presidency, civil-military relations, and American political development, he is author of The Cold War Presidency: A Documentary History; Uneasy Balance: Civil-Military Relations in Peacetime America since 1783; George Washington; Lyndon Baines Johnson; With Reverence and Contempt: How Americans Think About Their President; and Ideologues and Presidents: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution.

Table of Contents

Foreword George C. Edwards ix

Preface xi

New Acknowledgments xv

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction xix

1 Ideology: Attributes and Significance to Presidential Politics 1

2 The Recruitment and Management of People of Ideas 35

3 Defining a Mission for the TVA: The Roosevelt Administration 91

4 Creating Model Cities: The Johnson Administration 137

5 Engineering a Supply-Side Revolution: The Reagan Administration 177

6 The Radical's Dilemma and the Future of American Politics 215

7 The Many Conservatisms of the George W. Bush Administration 235

Epilogue: Ideologues in a Hostile Environment 277

Afterword 311

A Note on Sources 321

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

This is a troubling book, the more so because of its intelligence and the broad consultation that informs its arguments. It is a work of rich and penetrating scholarship, and it makes a vigorous case for reconceptualizing post-New Deal changes in the presidency. . . . Langston tangles with some tough questions here, and his thoughtfulness is in constant evidence. . . . One of the best things about this interesting book is that it helps us to see more clearly the pattern of change occurring in the post-war presidency as a consequence of the deterioration of political parties. . . . In the modern presidency ideas are important, but their value is heavily determined by their marketability. Langston argues that the time has come for ideologues in the modern presidency, that ‘people of ideas are here to stay.’” —G. Calvin Mackenzie, Congress & The Presidency “Regardless of how one feels about its legacy, the presidency of Ronald Reagan has excited scholarly interest like few other administrations. One of the Reagan administration’s most controversial features was its intense ideologization. Thomas Langston argues that far from being a unique feature of the Reagan era, the important role played by ideologues was the culmination of a significant trend that began with Franklin Roosevelt and continued through a transitional stage during the administration of Lyndon Baines Johnson. . . . Much recent scholarship has focused on the need of presidents to fill the gap between inflated expectations and reality. Filling that gap may lead presidents to rely heavily on ideologues to develop and articulate a credible case for programmatic achievement, but that role may be significantly different from the one played by ideologues in presidency’s of achievement. . . . Langston adds to a growing body of literature dealing with these larger topics of concern for a democratic polity.” —Joseph A. Pika, American Political Science Review “This monograph is a systematic analysis of the increasing role of ideologues, ideologists, or people of ideas in not only policy innovation but also in policy implementation at the national level. . . . A rather unique book, Ideologues and Presidents is must reading for presidential scholars and professional political scientists.” —Donald M. Freeman, Perspectives on Political Science “The book is stimulative of thought. . . . Professor Langston has contributed a good deal of useful probing into the shifting trends of American politics that surround the Presidency.” —William C. Spragens, Presidential Studies Quarterly

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