ABSTRACT
The American presidency was radically transformed in the years between Franklin Roosevelt's first inaugural and Bill Clinton's. The presidency was an institution of growing structural complexity. As presidential responsibilities grew, presidents sought new ways to engage the political community. Presidents became diplomats and negotiators. The postwar emergence of the president's role in policy initiation added new layers of structure and staff to the presidency. In many ways the postwar presidency devours its incumbents. It forces them to spend years in pursuit of the office, often in degrading and debilitating campaign activities. The modern presidency came to rest on four new and sturdy props: an expansive domestic policy agenda, the cold war, an available technology of mass communication, and a requirement to manage a vast federal government. The cold war presidency required a large standing armed force and vast networks of international and domestic intelligence activities.
