The Man of the People: Political Dissent and the Making of the American Presidency. By Nathaniel C.Green. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2020. 376 pp.

A central paradox of the modern American presidency is that citizens regularly call for strong presidential leadership while at the same time their political culture predisposes them to be reluctant followers.1 One of the ways contemporary presidents resolve this paradox is by invoking an electoral mandate. By persuading others that he possesses a mandate from the voters to pursue a particular policy agenda, a president can disguise his leadership under the pretense of simply carrying out “the will of the people.” The presidential mandate thus enables presidents to lead while seeming to follow, to exercise power over people under the guise of empowering the people.

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The Fall of Saddam Hussein: Security Council Mandates and Preemptive Self-Defense

The American Journal of International Law ◽

10.2307/3109842 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 97 (3) ◽

pp. 576-585 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Ruth Wedgwood

Keyword(s):

Weapons Of Mass Destruction ◽

Mass Destruction ◽

Old Regime ◽

Internal Security ◽

Political Dissent ◽

Civic Society ◽

Self Defense ◽

The People ◽

Saddam Hussein ◽

Military Campaign

At long last, the people of Iraq are freed from the brutality of Saddam Hussein. The swift success of the coalition’s military campaign has been followed by predictable difficulties in organizing a hew government, restoring an economy, rebuilding civic society, and quelling violence from remnants of the old regime. But these challenges are kept in scale by recalling a dictator who murdered three hundred thousand fellow citizens. Saddam chose weapons of mass destruction as the central symbol of his domestic and international swagger—using the same internal security apparatus to parry United Nations inspectors and to extinguish domestic political dissent. Removing Iraq’s Ba’athist regime has ended a looming danger to regional neighbors, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The crucial hopes for Middle East peace may also be enhanced by the change. And a new government in Baghdad lessens the chance that weapons matériel will be transferred to ill-intentioned nonstate actors.

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