Presidents and the people : the partisan story of going public / Melvin C. Laracey.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-253) and index.

"When the American president cannot get his way with Congress on something of great importance to him, he often appeals "over the heads" of Congress, directly to the American people. This kind of appeal and the frequent use of the media to generate support for presidential policies face criticism (especially from policy critics) as an unconstitutional means of subverting the executive-legislative power balance intended by the Constitution. Melvin C. Laracey, in this historical interpretation of presidential efforts to marshal public opinion in support of policy positions, 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 popular and elite 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. The relative absence of policy issues from earlier presidential speeches represented not an aversion to going public, but a preference for the printed word in a society in which speeches reached only the immediate audience."--Jacket.

Just whose Constitution is it, anyway? -- The presidential newspaper : the forgotten way of going public -- The presidential newspaper, 1836-60 : the rest of the story -- The old norm against going public : Constitutional principle or partisan fancy? -- Presidents and public communication in the late nineteenth century : the reign and fall of the Whigs -- The evolution of going public -- The legitimacy of going public -- Appendix A. Explanation of typology classifications -- Appendix B. Contents of the Washington Globe during the 1833-34 battle over Andrew Jackson's withdrawal of deposits from the Bank of the United States -- Appendix C. References (direct and indirect) to the Philippines Territory and the Spanish-American War in McKinley's speeches of late 1899.

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English.

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