George W. Bush and Washington Governance: Effective Use of a Self-Limiting Style
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Steven E Schier
How effective was the George W. Bush administration in using the levers of Washington governance to attain its goals? By late in Bush's presidency, his administration had received a reputation as less than competent due to their mismanagement of the response to Hurricane Katrina and the occupation of Iraq. Despite these "headline" reversals, a closer look at the evidence reveals an administration that often was quite effective in pursuing its goals with the federal bureaucracy, Congress and federal courts. The administration consistently pushed for expanded executive power consistent with its embrace of a unitary executive interpretation of their Constitutional power. Yet the hierarchical, managerial and partisan style of the administration proved self-limiting, as it increased partisan rancor in Washington and provided only a narrow margin for error that vanished after the 2006 elections.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- The American People and President George W. Bush: The Fall, the Rise and Fall Again
- George W. Bush and Washington Governance: Effective Use of a Self-Limiting Style
- Changing Course: Reversing the Organizational Trajectory of the Democratic Party from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama
- The Death and Life of the New Democrats
- Searching for Voters along the Liberal-Conservative Continuum: The Infrequent Ideologue and the Missing Middle
- The Limbaugh Effect: A Rush to Judging Cross-Party Raiding in the 2008 Democratic Nomination Contests
- The Demise of New Labour? The British 'Mid-Term' Elections of 2008
- Ascriptive Justice: The Prevalence, Distribution, and Consequences of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Response or Comment
- Comment on Simmons' Study of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Rejoinder to Professor Maranto
- Response to Weaver
- Review
- Review of Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s
- Review of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America and Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- The American People and President George W. Bush: The Fall, the Rise and Fall Again
- George W. Bush and Washington Governance: Effective Use of a Self-Limiting Style
- Changing Course: Reversing the Organizational Trajectory of the Democratic Party from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama
- The Death and Life of the New Democrats
- Searching for Voters along the Liberal-Conservative Continuum: The Infrequent Ideologue and the Missing Middle
- The Limbaugh Effect: A Rush to Judging Cross-Party Raiding in the 2008 Democratic Nomination Contests
- The Demise of New Labour? The British 'Mid-Term' Elections of 2008
- Ascriptive Justice: The Prevalence, Distribution, and Consequences of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Response or Comment
- Comment on Simmons' Study of Political Correctness in the Academy
- Rejoinder to Professor Maranto
- Response to Weaver
- Review
- Review of Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s
- Review of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America and Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power
