Is the American presidency built on empty promises?

Kenneth Lowande is an associate professor of political science and public policy (by courtesy), and a faculty associate in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. He researches how presidents use power, how Congress oversees the executive, and how unelected officials implement policy. Lowande is the author of False Front: The Failed Promise of Presidential Power in a Polarized Age (University of Chicago Press). He holds a BA in political science from Baylor University and an MA and PhD in government from the University of Virginia.

Sarada Peri is a writer and the founder of Peri Communications. She was special assistant to the president and senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama. Before joining the White House, she was a principal at West Wing Writers and was also a member of the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Democratic National Convention speechwriting teams. Sarada worked on Capitol Hill as lead education and health care policy advisor to former Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and started her career as a high school English teacher in New Orleans through Teach for America. She graduated from Tufts University and holds a MPP from Harvard University's Kennedy School.

Rachel Augustine Potter, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the hidden politics of procedure and process in American political institutions, with a particular focus on bureaucracy and regulation. Her book Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) received the American Political Science Association’s (APSA)Theodore Lowi Award for the best first book in any field of political science, APSA’s Richard Neustadt Award for the best book on executive politics, and the National Academy of Public Administration’s Louis Brownlow Award for the best book on public administration.