scholarly journals Immature leadership: Donald Trump and the American presidency

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W Drezner
Keyword(s):  
Impulse Control ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Small Child ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
American Presidency ◽  
Short Attention Span ◽  
Policy Shifts

Abstract There has been a renaissance in the study of how the backgrounds of individual leaders affect foreign policy outcomes. Donald Trump's presidency highlights the limits of this approach. Trump's psychology is so unique, and so akin to that of a small child, that studying his background alone is insufficient to explain his decision-making. The evidence for this characterization of Trump's leadership comes not from his political opponents, but his allies, staffers and subordinates. Trump's lack of impulse control, short attention span and frequent temper tantrums have all undercut his effectiveness as president as compared to his predecessors. Nonetheless, the 45th president helps to clarify ongoing debates in American politics about the relative strength of the presidency as an institution. In particular, the powers of the presidency have become so enhanced that even comparatively weak and inexperienced leaders can execute dramatic policy shifts. The formal checks on presidential power, from the legislative, judicial and executive branches have all eroded. Similarly, the informal checks on the presidency had also degraded before Trump's inauguration. This article uses Trump's presidency—and his severe limitations as a decision-maker—to highlight the ways in which even a weak leader can affect change by holding a powerful office.

scholarly journals American presidents in polarized D.C.: From Barack Obama to Joe Biden

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-347
Author(s):  
Victoria Yu. Zhuravleva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
American Presidency ◽  
White House ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Legislative Initiative

In 1960 one of the leading researchers of the American Presidency, professor and an adviser to a number of US presidents Richard Neustadt formulated the iconic formula where presidential power needed to cooperate with the Congress — persuade, negotiate and compromise. But since political reality has changed so deeply, today only a God gifted negotiator is able to fulfill its power in polarized Washington, D.C. A modern day president should be a legislator and a showman rolled into one to succeed in his mission. According to the Constitution, the American legislative process is based on the consensus between all participants, while both the President and the Congress have the power of legislative initiative. It is the president who is responsible for gaining this consensus between all the initiators. In time of political polarization parties which traditionally had been the facilitators of this way to compromise became the main obstacles. From the presidential ticket to the Congress, they turned out to be the main headache of the president. Joe Biden came to White House with a reputation of being a skilled compromiser. But while it has been his advantage with the electorate, the left wing of his party strongly opposes his centrist ideology. Donald Trump named himself a brilliant deal maker, but his business experience of making deals appeared to be irrelevant in polarized D.C. Why has it turned out to be so hard to bring a consensus to today’s political process? Will Biden be able to change this trend and reunite the Nation as he promised during his inauguration?

Investigating the President

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Kriner ◽  
Eric Schickler
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Theater ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Approval Rating ◽  
Congressional Investigations ◽  
Over Time

Although congressional investigations have provided some of the most dramatic moments in American political history, they have often been dismissed as mere political theater. But these investigations are far more than grandstanding. This book shows that congressional investigations are a powerful tool for members of Congress to counter presidential aggrandizement. By shining a light on alleged executive wrongdoing, investigations can exert significant pressure on the president and materially affect policy outcomes. This book constructs the most comprehensive overview of congressional investigative oversight to date, analyzing nearly 13,000 days of hearings, spanning more than a century, from 1898 through 2014. The book examines the forces driving investigative power over time and across chambers, and identifies how hearings might influence the president’s strategic calculations through the erosion of the president’s public approval rating, and uncover the pathways through which investigations have shaped public policy. Put simply, by bringing significant political pressure to bear on the president, investigations often afford Congress a blunt, but effective check on presidential power—without the need to worry about veto threats or other hurdles such as Senate filibusters. In an era of intense partisan polarization and institutional dysfunction, the book delves into the dynamics of congressional investigations and how Congress leverages this tool to counterbalance presidential power.

Ice Gouge Reliability of Offshore Arctic Pipelines

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Younan ◽  
J. M. Hamilton ◽  
J. Weaver
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
First Year ◽  
Burial Depth ◽  
Buried Pipe ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Statistical Characterization ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Adequate Reliability

Offshore arctic pipelines must be designed with adequate reliability against damage or rupture due to the effects of ice features that gouge the seafloor. A common design approach is to bury the pipeline sufficiently deep to avoid contact by a gouging ice keel of a target rare return interval. The effects of sub-gouge soil displacements on pipe stress or strain are also assessed. It is implicitly assumed, in this traditional approach, that ice keels have infinite strength and momentum, so that gouge depths are not limited by ice keel failure and direct contact of ice on pipe results in rupture. However, many first-year ice features may not be strong enough to gouge the soil to the extreme gouge depths. Considering the high cost of incremental pipeline burial depth, it may be desirable to account for limits imposed on extreme gouge depth by soil resistance. Introducing these limits, however, gives rise to additional uncertainty and requires the development of a reliability framework to assess the consequences of direct ice contact on the buried pipe. This paper presents a methodology for evaluating the probability of ice gouging non-performance of a pipeline while explicitly accounting for the ability of the seabed soil to limit ice gouge depth based on the relative strength of soil and ice keel. Non-performance is defined either as ice contact on the pipe or exceedence of some level of acceptable pipe strain when contacted by ice. A three-step approach is followed through the use of nonlinear finite element analysis to estimate pipeline capacity, the statistical characterization of demand from ice gouging events, and the development of a reliability framework combining demand and capacity. Parameters governing the capacity of the pipeline are identified, the sensitivity of the pipeline reliability to various parameters is investigated, and the impact of allowing ice contact on pipeline reliability is presented. Relative merits and risks of allowing ice contact are discussed in the context of pipeline reliability. The presented results and discussions are believed to be of significant help in the development of burial depth criteria for future offshore arctic pipelines, and certainly in the reassessment of existing ones.

7. Reform, change, and prospects for the future

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles O. Jones
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
American Presidency ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Difference ◽  
A Share

The presidency is regarded by many to be the most powerful branch in the separated system. Of the three branches, Congress is most prone to propose reforms as it competes with the presidency for a share of power. “Reform, change, and prospects for the future” asks what the difference between reform and change is and relates the two in terms to the American presidency throughout history. What reforms to the American presidency have been successful? What are the lessons and effects of statutory reform? The future of the presidency is heavily influenced by its past and present. Effective presidential power in a separated system is that exercised in recognition of the legitimate functions of the other branches.

Hiding resonant planets behind a big friend

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laetitia Rodet ◽  
Dong Lai
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Giant Planet ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Indirect Detection ◽  
Mean Motion ◽  
Formation And Evolution ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mean Motion Resonance

<p class="western" align="justify">The characterization of the interplay between the inner and outer parts of planetary systems has long been impractical due to the separated detection ranges of the corresponding observation techniques. However, this gap is closing thanks to the technical improvements of the instruments and the longer observational baselines, and statistical insights are already within reach on the impact of cold Jupiters on super Earths. In this talk, I would like to present a theoretical study on the influence of an external giant planet misaligned with inner resonant planets, within the circular restricted problem. The behavior of the system depends on the relative strength between the coupling of the planets and the perturbations from the outer body. We demonstrated that mean-motion resonance strengthens the inner coupling and is very resilient to the perturbation, surviving periodic relative inclination increases of tens of degrees between the inner planets. This study has applications for the indirect detection of exoplanets, as well as the understanding of their formation and evolution, in particular the role of mean-motion resonance and relative inclinations.</p>

The15N NMR chemical shift in the characterization of weak halogen bonding in solution

2017 ◽  
Vol 203 ◽  
pp. 333-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiaan B. Hakkert ◽  
Jürgen Gräfenstein ◽  
Mate Erdelyi
Keyword(s):  
Hydrogen Bond ◽  
Chemical Shift ◽  
Halogen Bond ◽  
Molar Fraction ◽  
Halogen Bonding ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Lewis Base ◽  
Halogen Bonds ◽  
Bonded Complexes

We have studied the applicability of15N NMR spectroscopy in the characterization of the very weak halogen bonds of nonfluorinated halogen bond donors with a nitrogenous Lewis base in solution. The ability of the technique to detect the relative strength of iodine-, bromine- and chlorine-centered halogen bonds, as well as solvent and substituent effects was evaluated. Whereas computations on the DFT level indicate that15N NMR chemical shifts reflect the diamagnetic deshielding associated with the formation of a weak halogen bond, the experimentally observed chemical shift differences were on the edge of detectability due to the low molar fraction of halogen-bonded complexes in solution. The formation of the analogous yet stronger hydrogen bond of phenols have induced approximately ten times larger chemical shift changes, and could be detected and correlated to the electronic properties of substituents of the hydrogen bond donors. Overall,15N NMR is shown to be a suitable tool for the characterization of comparably strong secondary interactions in solution, but not sufficiently accurate for the detection of the formation of thermodynamically labile, weak halogen bonded complexes.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Michael W. McConnell
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Internal Logic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
The Republic

This chapter provides a background on the nature and limits of executive power under the US Constitution. It closely examines the constitutional text bearing on presidential power together with its historical context to discern its meaning and internal logic. It also cites the phenomenon of Donald Trump that made thinking seriously about the institution of the presidency more difficult than ever before as there has never been so polarizing a figure at the apex of politics. The chapter attempts to reconstruct the framers' design for the presidency based on the text they wrote, their experience of royal authority in colonial times, and the interpretative battles in the early years of the republic. It identifies the framers that wanted an effective president who would not be a king and points out how a republican executive was meant to function.

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