Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- I Contemporary American Society and Politics
- II Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Transatlantic Encounters
- III Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Foreign Policy
- IV Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Impact of American Values
- V Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Exceptionalism and Democracy Promotion
- VI Continuity and Change
- The Power of Change vs. the Power of Continuity: What Might be Achieved by the U.S. President in the First 100 Days of His Presidency? (On George W. Bush and Barack Obama's Examples)
- Continuity and Change in Sino-American Relations in the Light of ‘Complex’ Interdependence Theory
The Power of Change vs. the Power of Continuity: What Might be Achieved by the U.S. President in the First 100 Days of His Presidency? (On George W. Bush and Barack Obama's Examples)
from VI - Continuity and Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- I Contemporary American Society and Politics
- II Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Transatlantic Encounters
- III Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Foreign Policy
- IV Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Impact of American Values
- V Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Exceptionalism and Democracy Promotion
- VI Continuity and Change
- The Power of Change vs. the Power of Continuity: What Might be Achieved by the U.S. President in the First 100 Days of His Presidency? (On George W. Bush and Barack Obama's Examples)
- Continuity and Change in Sino-American Relations in the Light of ‘Complex’ Interdependence Theory
Summary
…Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory, I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
This passage from the inaugural speech delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the day he was sworn into office on March 4th, 1933 may provide a good starting point for an analysis of how effective various American Presidents were during the first hundred days of their term of office. Assuming office when the Great Depression had already run deep, Roosevelt was not afraid of the responsibility vested in him, nor did he hesitate to resort to using unconventional solutions in order to shore up the economy. His declaring “a war against emergency” practically meant setting in American policy a new standard that has been well consolidated since, namely the almost magical deadline of the first hundred days of a new presidency. Because the FDR administration, in co-operation with the Congress, needed only one hundred days to prepare a legal framework that made it possible to instigate a complex anti-crisis program known as the New Deal, Americans started to expect that FDR successors should begin their terms of office in an equally effective manner. What must be done to satisfy these expectations?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The United States and the WorldFrom Imitation to Challenge, pp. 323 - 336Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2009