専制政治を防ぐべく、合衆国建国の父たちは意図的に国家権力を立法・行政・司法に分離しました。徹底した権力分立制を採用する統治機構のもとで大統領はどのような問題に直面するのか、憲法上の大統領職の本質について掘り下げます。新版では議会と大統領の関係性や立法・政策決定の過程、制度改革といった重要なテーマを見つめ直し、オバマ政権の事例を用いて軍指揮権やファースト・レディの役割、選挙運動の新たな手法についても紹介します。
    

• Stresses the significance of split party control and narrow margins as encouraging greater executive power
• Emphasizes the high expectations for presidents and the limits imposed by the separation of powers system
• Adds analysis of electoral campaigns, to include the 2008 economic crisis during the election
• Incorporates analysis of the recent Obama administration and includes a section on the First Ladies

   
The American founding fathers were dedicated to the project of creating a government both functional and incapable of devolving into tyranny. To do this, they intentionally decentralized decision making among the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches. They believed this separation of powers would force compromise and achieve their goal of "separating to unify." In the second edition of this Very Short Introduction, Charles O. Jones delves into the constitutional roots of the American presidency to show how presidents faced the challenges of governing within a system of separation of powers.
  
This updated edition of The American Presidency reviews crucial themes, including democratization of presidential elections, transitioning into and organizing a presidency, challenges in leading the permanent government, making law and policy, and reforming and changing the institution. It also introduces new case studies from the Obama administration, providing compelling insights into contemporary critical issues such as military power, the role of the First Lady, and the new trends in electoral campaigning-including the stunning advances in mass media and campaign technology.
  
Jones lucidly shows that American presidents are not, and simply cannot be, as powerful as most Americans believe them to be. Accordingly, he stresses the necessity to acknowledge the president's political status and style within the constitutional structure: the president is not the presidency, and the presidency is not the government.