Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan

Chapter 7 gives attention to the presidents as individual men whose personalities and beliefs fit the need to cultivate the power described earlier in the book. In particular, Neustadt gives significant attention to Franklin D. Roosevelt as an excellent (perhaps ideal) fit with the demands of the presidency. Neither Truman nor Eisenhower would fit as neatly.

Roosevelt excelled because he drew information from multiple sources and had relationships with many people in various relevant positions. Further, he kept decisions in his own hands so that he could allow interactions among others to play out and shift his goals or strategy in the manner most optimal for developing his power. Such an approach could appear messy, but Roosevelt played it perfectly and was hugely successful as a result.

Eisenhower, on the other hand, delegated many of the necessary components of decisions, leaving himself with limited sources of information that would generally beset him with little time to articulate and fulfil his decisions. Neustadt suggests that Eisenhower may have needed such a structure.

Neustadt further develops this comparison by examining the backgrounds of the two men. He contrasts Roosevelt’s confident sense that he should be president (following, of course, in the footsteps of his relative, President Theodore Roosevelt) with Eisenhower’s