When the American president cannot get his way with Congress on
something of great importance to him, he often appeals directly to the
American people. This kind of appeal has been criticized as an
unconstitutional means of subverting the power balance intended by the
Constitution. In this volume, Mel Laracey challenges the notion that
direct appeals are either recent or unconstitutional.

    Presidents and the People offers the first comprehensive study of
presidential communication with the public on policy matters and of
attitudes toward going public. Laracey demonstrates that the practice
did not begin with Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, Kennedy's televised
press conferences, or Bill Clinton's town meetings. Rather, historically,
it has included earlier media such as presidentially sponsored
newspapers.

    Tracing the sometimes thinly veiled exercise of public appeals through
such newspapers, Laracey concludes that "going public is not a modern
manifestation, but rather the modern triumph of one view of the proper
place of the presidency in the constitutional order."

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MEL LARACEY is an assistant professor of political science at the
University of Texas at San Antonio.


The Presidency and Leadership, A Joseph V. Hughes, Jr., and
Holly O. Hughes Book