ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the field of presidential studies began to grapple with issues of presidential power. It examines the leadership style of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a president whom Neustadt finds ineffective but who may have simply been using different means of exercising power. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Richard E. Neustadt obtained his master's degree at Harvard in 1941 before joining the US Navy during World War II. In Neustadt's opinion, Dwight D. Eisenhower was precisely the opposite. Eisenhower was trapped by the more organized advisory arrangements he had created, and he "seemingly preferred to let subordinates proceed upon the lowest common denominators of agreement than to have their quarrels—and issues and details— pushed up to him." For Eisenhower, the advisory process not only was central to his decision making but also played a role in his leadership style.
