George C. Edwards III

George C. Edwards III is university distinguished professor of political science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University and distinguished fellow at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford. He is a leading scholar of American politics, particularly of the American presidency, authoring or editing 27 books and approximately 100 articles and essays.

Biography

Edwards was born in Rochester, New York, in 1947 and moved with his family to Florida in 1959. He received his B.A. from Stetson University (1969) and his M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Academic career

He taught at Tulane University from 1973 to 1978 before moving to Texas A&M University in 1978. He was the founder and from 1991 to 2001 the director of The Center for Presidential Studies. Since 1998, he has been editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly.[1] He is also general editor of the Oxford Handbook of American Politics.[2][3] He is currently University Distinguished Professor and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies Emeritus at Texas A&M University and Distinguished Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Edwards has held a number of visiting appointments, including:

He has advised Brazil on its constitution and the operation of its presidency, Russia on building a democratic national party system, Mexico on elections, and Chinese scholars on democracy. He also wrote studies for the 1988, 2000, 2008, 2016, and 2020 U.S. presidential transitions and was instrumental in bringing the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum to Texas A&M University’s campus.

Scholarly focus

His principal focus has been the American presidency. This work has focused on several themes. He pioneered the quantitative study of the presidency[4] and has edited three volumes on theory and methods of researching the presidency.[5] His second focus has been presidential leadership in Congress. He has written that presidents are highly dependent on the strategic position in which they find themselves and can only influence Congress at the margins.[6]

Edwards has also written widely on the president’s relations with the public, particularly their efforts to lead public opinion. He has reported that presidents are rarely able to move the public in their direction. Despite all their efforts, their words typically fall on deaf ears.[7]

In recent years, he has fashioned his empirical findings into a theory of presidential leadership that challenges the view that presidential power is the power to persuade. Instead, he argues, presidential power is the power to recognize and exploit opportunities. In other words, presidents cannot create opportunities for change and must understand and take advantage of whatever possibilities for change already exist.[8] In early 2009, he predicted the problems President Barack Obama would face, despite the declarations of many insiders the new president would transform the political landscape and thus pave the way for major changes in policy.[9] In 2016, he predicted that despite his reputed promotional and negotiating skills, Donald Trump would not succeed in persuading either the public or Congress to follow his lead.[10]

He has also written on reforming the Electoral College and has written and spoken widely on the subject.[11]

Notable works
  3. "George C. Edwards III". Personal Website. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  4. Edwards, George C. (1980). Presidential Influence in Congress. W.H. Freehman. ISBN 0716711621.
  5. Edwards, George C.; Howell, William G. (2009). The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019960441X.
  6. Edwards, George C. (1989). At the Margins: Presidential Leadership of Congress. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300044046.
  7. Edwards, George C. (2003). On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300115814.
  8. Edwards, George C. (2009). The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691154367.
  9. Edwards, George C. (2012). Overreach: Leadership in the Obama Presidency. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691153681.
  10. Edwards III, George C. (2021). Changing Their Minds? Donald Trump and Presidential Leadership. University of Chicago Press.
  11. Edwards III, George C. (2019). Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America, 3rd ed (3 ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300243888.
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