Product Description: The authors of this volume seek to dispel two powerful "myths of the bureaucracy" -- the belief that the federal bureaucracy is unresponsive to government and the belief that democracy itself is imperiled by an out-of-control bureaucratic process...read more

Product Description: NEW EDITION COMING July 2006!! Employing a theory of institutional interconnectivity, Waterman evaluates the presidency from a historical perspective, including information about changes in presidential resources, the role of the media in the emergence of the modern presidency, and other aspects in the ongoing evolution of the office...read more

Examines and measures the extent to which statutory language affects judicial behavior.How does the language of legislative statutes affect judicial behavior? Scholars of the judiciary have rarely studied this question despite statutes being, theoretically, the primary opportunity for legislatures to ensure that those individuals who interpret the law will follow their preferences. In Checking the Courts, Kirk A. Randazzo and Richard W. Waterman offer a model that integrates ideological and legal factors through an empirical measure of statutory discretion. The model is tested across multiple judicial institutions, at both the federal and state levels, and reveals that judges are influenced by the levels of discretion afforded in the legislative statutes. In those cases where lawmakers have clear policy preferences, legislation encourages judges to strictly interpret the plain meaning of the law. Conversely, if policy preferences are unclear, legislation leaves open the possibility that judges will make decisions based on their own ideological policy preferences. Checking the Courts thus provides us with a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between law and ideology.

Product Description: Image is everything. Today, our television and movie stars, our athletes, and our politicians carefully craft images for public consumption. Even our country's Executive Chief is not immune to a bit of image manipulation. If presidents can not always actually satisfy the public's excessive, contradictory, and unrealistic expectations, they can at least present a compelling image of presidential leadership and success...read more

Product Description: Book by

Book by Waterman, Richard W.

Product Description: Presidents are expected to demonstrate strong leadership skills and are quickly criticized when they do not. But what, precisely, does leadership entail? And how can we better analyze and understand the complexities of presidential leadership? A collection of compelling analyses by eminent scholars, Presidential Leadership: The Vortex of Power looks at presidential leadership from a variety of perspectives, integrating cutting-edge research on both the incentives and the constraints presidents face in their attempts to lead the country...read more