The Institutional Effects of Executive Scandals

Brandon Rottinghaus is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Senator Don Henderson Scholar at the University of Houston. Professor Rottinghaus is the co-founder of the Presidential Proclamations Project, an online resource documenting presidential use of unilateral powers through executive proclamation. His most recent book is The Provisional Pulpit: Modern Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion (2010).

• Introduction; 1. Studying scandals: state and national executive scandals; 2. Strategic decisions: stonewall or come clean?; 3. The institutional and political dynamics to political survival; 4. The effect of scandal on executive action and policy selection; 5. The effect of scandals on executive-legislative relations; 6. Scandals and charges of corruption; 7. The impacts and implications of executive scandals on the American political system.

'Presidential scholars will welcome and benefit from this finely crafted and useful book. The author is balanced and fair-minded, and allows the data to do the talking.' Michael A. Genovese, Congress and the Presidency