Political Time: Determining Presidential Legacies

Stephen Skowronek writes about political time and how one can determine the legacy president will leave behind at the time their presidency is done. The president has immense powers when he comes to office but the challenges they each face vary depending on the time they take office. Skowronek analyzes and demonstrates that the most essential factor for a president to attempt to legitimize his actions and orders will be the actions of the president before him. According to the actions of George W. Bush is how we can determine where Barack Obama falls under and following the chain the next president. If Hillary Clinton were to win the 2016 election she would fall under the politics of articulation and Barack Obama would fall under the politics

Reconstruction falls under the new incoming president being vulnerable and opposed to the previous regime. The president that comes in this time is coming at the essential time of break-through. The previous regime is in disjunction, the orders of that president are no longer working for the threat the country is facing at the time, so a new order comes into power. This is the best position to be in as a president because the president comes into office with enormous amount of power, flexibility and authority to change, bend, and shape new orders. Skowornek writes, “ these president each set out to retrieve from a far distant, even mythic, past fundamental values that they claim had been lost in the indulgences of the received order, In this way, the order-shattering and order-affirming impulses of the presidency in politics became mutually reinforcing.” (Skowornek, 37, book). These president are at the best position not because they are exceptional at their job but because the time they came into office offered them the elasticity and authority to make new orders and be welcomed by the public because he is taking the country out of its troubles and