Tough Times for the President: Political Adversity and the Sour ...

Decisive uses of executive power have aided presidents in developing the professional reputation that Neustadt saw as important to a president’s persuasiveness in Washington. Ronald Reagan’s 1981 firing of striking air traffic controllers made his later threats to use presidential power more compelling. Clinton’s willingness to shut down the government in 1995, when he and the 104th Congress reached an impasse over the budget, aided him in subsequent negotiations over spending priorities. In contrast, consider George W. Bush and the veto: Bush did not veto any bills until 2006, well into his second term. Although he did issue veto threats (141 up to that time, according to the White House¹³), the fact that he did not actually veto any legislation was taken by many observers as a sign of weakness in a president so willing to assert executive power.¹⁴ Constitutional and legal powers, which are a key element of Neustadt’s “vantage points,” can be used skillfully to enhance the president’s reputation rather than undercut executive influence. The professional reputation that Neustadt commended is enhanced by skillful use of the “command” powers that he claimed are self-defeating.

Third, the Reasoning Behind Power-as-Persuasion Is Faulty

At the outset of Presidential Power, Neustadt had already decided that “command” does not work and set out to prove that claim. His reading of three specific cases appears on the surface to be an exercise in generalizing the lessons of those cases, but his account of the cases is shaped by the conclusion he had already drawn. Therefore, all of his argument hangs on the validity of his premise, which is also his conclusion, thus making Neustadt’s reasoning largely circular in nature. He told interesting stories and in the process succeeded in offering useful insights about the subtleties of power, but he did not construct an effective case for his argument.

Fourth, It Is Misleading to Claim that Power Is Only Persuasion

As Raymond Tatalovich and Thomas Engeman have pointed out, Neustadt’s focus on bargaining and persuasion has resulted in “the nearly complete disregard of prerogative power in presidential scholarship.”¹⁵