Jockeying for the American Presidency: The Political Opportunism of Aspirants

"Dr. Lara Brown's Jockeying for the American Presidency is one of the best books this discipline has contributed to the study of presidential nominations and elections. Her book has three especially attractive features. First, she correctly conceives of ambition as the theoretical base and she roots that ambition early in presidential aspirants' political careers. Second, she is very clear in the interaction between individual goals, here ambition for the Oval Office, and the development of partisan and electoral institutions. Third, as necessitated by the small number of nominations and the endogeneity among ambition, opportunity, and institution, her study is deeply historical. But history here is not just good research design; it animates the study and makes it such a pleasure to read."---John H. Aldrich, Duke University

"Lara Brown sheds new light on presidential politics in her analysis of presidential aspirants. She argues that instead of being shaped by political party and external events, successful nominees actively shape their political parties and create their own political circumstances. Her richly detailed portraits of both winners and losers throughout American history undergird her theoretical contributions. Anyone interested in presidential elections will benefit greatly from reading this book."---James P. Pfiffner, George Mason University

"This book will compel scholars to take a new look at the role of "political opportunism" in the presidential selection process. Lara Brown provides a fresh, innovative exploration of the roots of opportunism, one that challenges conventional wisdom as it advances our understanding of this complex topic."---Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount University

"Lara Brown links candidate opportunism to political experience, electoral success, partisan change, and institutional development. Admirably, she also seeks to contextualize opportunistic behavior---to be sensitive to history, norms, and contingent events. This is at bottom a study about candidate qualities---human nature, political character, the appetite for power---and the consequences of these for the successful pursuit of the presidential office. This, I believe, constitutes the core of the study and its greatest strength. In fact, in some ways this book is one of a small handful of works in recent memory to take very seriously the political and institutional implications of human nature---ambition, self-interest, opportunism---since the Federalist Papers."---Scott C. James. UCLA