Presidents and Political Scandal

Zusatztext

This book explores presidential power through an analysis of the ways that U.S. presidents attempt to manage scandals. While presidents routinely stonewall to block or limit investigations into their alleged transgressions or, in some cases, cooperate with investigators, this book proposes the existence of a third way of responding to scandalsa backfire or the creation of a counter-scandal to try to extinguish the original scandal. The existence of possible backfires is surveyed through case studies of the major scandals that impacted the Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Trump administrations. The development of this form of scandal response has meaningful implications concerning the growth of presidential power and its impacts on the functioning of the U.S. political system and the quality of American democracy. Changes in partisanship, the media environment, and the publics view of the presidency and government are topics covered in the books explanation of the trends in scandal responses.

Autorenportrait

Richard Barberio is Associate Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York's College at Oneonta, USA. He writes widely and teaches on American political institutions and processes, and is the author of The Politics of Public Policy (2014).

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