The Reconstructive Obama
The Reconstructive Obama It is ambiguous as to how President Barrack Obama shapes our politics in terms of our political regime, but it can be determined through the present outcomes of his leadership today. In The Politics Presidents Make, by Stephen Skowronek, describes that there is a life-cycle of inaugurated presidents through the history of the United States. A political regime is defined as a full cycle of presidents that induce change in our politics until it is repeated again. Through this, it is possible to determine where President Obama would stand in our political time. Skowronek also mentions four leadership categories in which past presidents are placed in: politics of reconstruction, politics of disjunction, politics of articulation, and politics of pre-emption. In order to place President Obama into this spectrum, it is important to understand how President George W. Bush shaped our politics during his presidential period. This being said, President Obama would be part of the politics of reconstruction after evaluating his current actions as president today. In this paper, I will first describe the concepts of Skowronek’s ideas and demonstrate an understanding of his four principle leadership categories. Then I will apply this to our current political time, according to President Bush and then examining President Obama. By analyzing Skowronek’s conception, I will show evidence to locate President Obama’s presidency in our current political time. Skowronek’s main claim is that presidents are situated in different moments of political time. He explains that there is a life-cycle of presidents which is made up of numerous political regimes where each president stands in relation to that political regime and its regime party. In each political regime, they are made up of the “3 I’s” which are ideas, interests, and institutions. What distinguish each political regime are the changes in these “3I’s.” To illustrate this, the period during 1933-1981
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