Nixon's Business: Authority and Power in Presidential Politics (The Presidency and Leadership)

Richard Nixon considered establishing a strong peacetime economy one of his most important political objectives. Using Richard E. Neustadt's analytical framework of presidential power, Nigel Bowles develops five case studies around President Nixon's economic policies. Bowles's insightful analysis helps us understand the sources of Nixon's authority and power, as well as his use of both. For each of the cases, Bowles considers the president's bargaining advantages: his constitutional and statutory authority, presidential reputation, popular prestige, and personal qualities. He then answers Neustadt's twin questions: ""What was the president's inheritance?"" and ""What was his legacy?"" The cases Bowles has chosen represent fiscal policy, wage and price policy, international monetary policy, and domestic monetary policy. Through these analyses, Bowles offers new perspectives on Nixon's use of authority and power, his dealings with and views of senior politicians and power-brokers; his ruthlessness and political ingenuity; the ways his experiences as congressman, senator, and vice president shaped his approach to the presidency; and his subordination of other objectives to his drive for re-election in 1972. ""Nixon's Business"" is the first book to make systematic use of Neustadt's crucial framework in understanding a specific presidency. It is also the first to analyze empirically the components of Nixon's authority and power and the first to demonstrate the implications of both for understanding the institution of the United States Presidency.