A Seat of Popular Leadership: The Presidency, Political Parties, and Democratic Government

Extract

A Seat of Popular Leadership: The Presidency, Political Parties, and Democratic Government. By Michael J. Korzi. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004. 292p. $80.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Through an examination of the political biographies and annual messages of selected presidents, Michael Korzi provides a rich description of the rise and decline of party government in the nineteenth century. He persuasively argues that nineteenth-century parties were not mere spoils machines but parties of principles and policies. Moreover, he claims that the model of nineteenth-century party presidents presents an attractive alternative to the detached statesmanship championed by the Founders, as well as the unrestrained popular leadership practiced by twentieth-century presidents.