ABSTRACT
There are two major ways of looking at the Presidential job. Professor Corwin takes one way—a constitutional study of the important aspects of the office (chief executive, administrative chief, commander-in-chief, foreign-affairs chief, popular and legislative leader), of the powers that have been claimed for it, and of the problems of selection and tenure that it raises. His approach merits comparison with that of Harold Laski’s American Presidency. In contrast, Laskls book was affirmative and almost optimistic. Laski saw the Presidency as the spearhead of the “positive” state, alone capable of furnishing the leadership to carry us without violence through the transition period. At any rate, the President’s job will more and more in the immediate future become a dual one—that of exercising overseership of a far-flung administrative network, the parts of which must be kept harmonious with each other; and that of leadership, of imparting will and energy and direction to a government.
