James K. Polk and the American presidency

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe Democratic victory in 1844 brought to the office of President of the United States a man who was determined to establish for that position the prerogatives of an independent, equal branch of the government. He accepted without question or doubt all the vast responsibility which the office placed upon his shoulders; he was never willing to say that a Presidential responsibility for a given task rested with Congress, with a member of his cabinet, or with the military. Rather by all his words and deeds he said the responsibility rested with the President. This dissertation has as its thesis a twofold proposition: first, that the Polk administration institutionalized those changes in the American Presidency which have become associated with the Jacksonian-type executive; and, second, as a coordinate thesis, that President Polk in his own right made some significant contributions to the presidency. In reference to the first proposition it has been demonstrated that Polk, in a more direct manner even than Jackson, advocated and acted upon a theory that the executive is directly responsible to the people. Furthermore, Polk controlled the subordinate executive officers of the government with a degree of consistency never equaled by Jackson. Polk as the driving power behind "manifest destiny" represented the great force of his time, as Jackson had been in a similar way the symbol of the growing demands for popular democracy during his administration. Finally, as a political leader, Polk attempted to follow closely in Jackson's pattern, but already the times were demanding a new type of leadership, a dynamic personal leadership of the people, a role which Polk was unable to fill. To demonstrate the second proposition, it is necessary to refer again to Polk's control over the subordinate officials of the executive branch of the government, for in this regard Polk's supervision was so much more pervasive than Jackson's that it really represents a difference in kind rather than degree. Polk established the precedent that as a matter of institutionalized routine it was the right and the responsibility of the President to control and supervise all actions of the executive branch of the government. This was carried to the extent of instituting for the first time a truly executive budget, which reflected the President's choice of goals and administrative objectives. Polk's other major contribution to Presidential development was his domination in a similar fashion of the military. He resolved the constitutional doubt which Madison's inept exercise of the role of commander-in-chief had raised regarding that important Presidential function by demonstrating conclusively in time of war that a civilian without previous military experience could effectively exercise the powers of military command which the Constitution had placed in his hands. The material in this dissertation is presented in terms of the traditional analysis of Presidential authority and operations. As Louis Brownlow reminds us, no cataloging of the various roles that the President plays would satisfy all students of the Presidency. Nevertheless, for purposes of analysis, it seems essential to make such a classification so that the tools of the political scientist can best be brought to bear on the subject. Therefore, chronological order has been sacrificed for analytical clarity, and the dissertation is organized around such themes as Polk's concept of the Presidency and the President as commander-in-chief, chief of foreign affairs, chief legislator, and party chief. In addition to the contemporary works on the Presidency and historical studies of the period the dissertation makes extensive use of Polk's diaries and his personal papers which have been collected at the Library of Congress

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Privatisation and state activity: the "privatisation" of public service culture and of tradeable enterprise... by Elaine McCoy and Charles Allan McCoy

tag=1 data=Privatisation and state activity: the "privatisation" of public service culture and of tradeable enterprise... by Elaine McCoy and Charles Allan McCoy tag=2 data=McCoy, Elaine%McCoy, Charles Allan tag=3 data=Policy Organisation and Society, tag=5 data=2 tag=6 data=Summer 1990 tag=7 data=32-40. tag=8 data=PRIVATE ENTERPRISE tag=10 data=New State reforms. tag=11 data=1991/3/2 tag=12 data=91/0217 tag=13 data=CABNew State reforms

How does the pandemic end? Losing control of the COVID-19 pandemic illness narrative

The end of a pandemic is as much a political act as biological reality. It is over not simply when case counts or deaths are reduced to some objectively determined acceptable level but also when, and if, the public accepts the stories that politicians and health officials tell about it. This paper has three aims. First, to develop the concept of a pandemic illness narrative – a public narrative that makes the experience of an outbreak meaningful to a community of people and explains when it will be finished. Using the case of the United States, the paper then examines how American state organisations and public health officials tried to disseminate a version of the ‘restitution illness narrative’ to make sense out of the COVID-19 pandemic and explain how it would ultimately end. Lastly, the paper describes the factors that made this narrative ultimately implausible to the American public. As most Americans are now seemingly indifferent about the pandemic, it has ended in the United States without ever actually being narratively concluded