Subverting the Republic

Nicholas F. Jacobs is assistant professor of government at Colby College. He is the coauthor of The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America (with Daniel M. Shea) and What Happened to the Vital Center? Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the Fracturing of America (with Sidney M. Milkis). Sidney M. Milkis is the White Burkett Miller Professor of the Department of Politics and Faculty Associate at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. He is the author of many books, including Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy from the University Press of Kansas.

"Jacobs and Milkis have provided a thorough accounting of the Trump presidency that places it in historical and institutional context. They identify how ‘executive-centered partisanship,’ the result of institutional changes across the presidency and the party system, have created opportunities for Trump, while also delineating how these structures have influenced other presidents and the broader political system. This is a highly informative and theoretically robust book."— Julia Azari, author of Delivering the People’s Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate "Jacobs and Milkis describe how Donald Trump’s presidency was constructed on the foundation that Franklin D. Roosevelt built. Not in terms of policy—of course—but on the premise of an executive-centered presidency that began with FDR and has been accepted and extended by his successors. Jacobs and Milkis forcefully argue that Donald Trump wasn’t just an aberration but an extension of a revamped presidency that began decades before. A must-addition to the literature on the Trump presidency."— John Kenneth White, author of Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism"This meticulously researched study presents an instructive critique of the expansion of executive power in the modern presidency. The authors situate the Trump presidency in a longstanding evolution of executive-centered party governance, which they argue is antithetical to American democracy. Their argument that stronger institutional leadership to counter presidential power is needed to preserve the constitutional system of checks and balances is essential reading for scholars of the presidency and American politics."— Meena Bose, author of Pragmatic Vision: Obama and the Enactment of the Affordable Care Act"Jacobs and Milkis’s latest book is a timely and important work that not only provides a detailed and thorough assessment of the Trump presidency but also seeks to diagnose the greater systemic challenges facing modern presidential politics. It is a must-read book for anyone who seeks to understand presidential behavior and contemporary politics."— Mitchel A. Sollenberger, coauthor of The Unitary Executive Theory: A Danger to Constitutional Government