Search results

Do presidents matter for America's economic performance? The Gilded Age presidents of the late nineteenth century seem like weak and forgettable leaders, but they hold the key to answering this question precisely because of their supposed impotence. In Presidential Leadership in Feeble Times, Mark Zachary Taylor tells the story of three decades of Gilded Age economic upheaval with a focus on presidential leadership - why did some presidents crash and burn, while others prospered?

Why are some countries better than others at science and technology? Written in accessible language, 'The Politics of Innovation' provides readers from all backgrounds with a useful survey of the innovation debate. It presents extensive evidence to show that national institutions and policies do not determine innovation rates, but politics do

AbstractSkowronek's theory of "political time" posits that presidential success follows historical cycles, but it does not specify a unique causal mechanism. Each president merely reacts to their predecessor or to historical circumstance. Scholars of "political time" also suggest that the power of history may be diminishing over time. This article uses theory and evidence to address the causality issue in both instances. First, it shows that economic crises drive political time forward. Second, it argues that recent political commitments to a combination of New Deal and Reaganite ideas and policies have been used to attenuate economic crises. Hence, it is not that the power of history has waned. Rather, the causal nature of political time has been under‐specified.