Summary Of Presidential Power And The Power To Persuade

Reaction Paper: Presidential Power and the Power to Persuade To be a strong, powerful leader, or not to be, that is the question for the President of the United States. With global issues, domestic chaos, and foreign affairs, Presidents are expected to do much more than their authority enables them to do. Because of the limit of their authority and the harsh criticism from citizens, Presidents lead with their bargaining skills and persuasiveness. If a President is too harsh or strong, people categorize him as a tyrant, and if a President is perceived as weak, citizens label him as incompetent. In the Presidential Power and the Power to Persuade, Richard E. Neustadt argues that Presidents should persuade and bargain not command, should have shared powers not separated powers, and should draw power from his reputation.
However, according to Neustadt, a President should not simply command, but instead, he should persuade and bargain. If Presidents just commanded, citizens would perceive them as weak. For example, Americans view Jimmy Carter as one of the weakest president because of the economic crisis during his presidency and the manner in which he tried to solve it by clearing out many federal agencies. It was not the fact that his decision was necessarily wrong, but it was the fact that he did not exactly instill confidence in Americans through persuading and bargaining. Moreover, if a President employs the presidential authority outlined in the Constitution, he has failed in terms of reassuring the general public and will most likely undermine the effect of his persuasiveness to complete future