The Obama Presidency and the Politics of Change

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: The Politics of Change

   • Edward Ashbee, John Dumbrell

   Pages 1-50

3. Obama’s Electoral Record: The Emerging Democratic Majority?

   • Philip J. Davies

   Pages 51-65

4. The Obama White House and Congress

   • J David Morgan

   Pages 67-77

5. The US Supreme Court in the Obama Years

   • Helen J. Knowles, Steven B. Lichtman, Brandon T. Metroka

   Pages 79-97

6. Continuity and Change: Immigration Worksite Enforcement in the Bush and Obama Administrations

   • Camille Marienbach, Andrew Wroe

   Pages 99-121

7. Macroeconomic Policy and Processes of Neoliberalization During the Obama Years

   • Edward Ashbee

   Pages 123-159

8. Racially Polarised Partisanship and the Obama Presidency

   • Richard Johnson

   Pages 161-180

9. Offers and Throffers: Education Policy under Obama

   • Ursula Hackett

   Pages 181-197

10. Healthy Hunger-free Kids? The US School Lunch Revolution

    • Clodagh Harrington

    Pages 199-215

11. Obama and the Environment

    • John C. Berg

    Pages 217-234

12. A New “War on Poverty”? A Story of Policy Success, Frustration and Restraint

    • Alex Waddan

    Pages 235-263

13. Barack Obama and the Return of ‘Declinism’: Rebalancing American Foreign Policy in an Era of Multipolarity

    • Andrew Moran

    Pages 265-287

14. Obama and Iran: Explaining Policy Change

    • Steven Hurst

    Pages 289-305

15. “Here, We See the Future”: The Obama Administration’s Pivot to Asia

    • Niels Bjerre-Poulsen

    Pages 307-327

16. Afterword: The American Politics Group (Political Studies Association, UK)

    • Dean McSweeney

    Pages 329-330

17. Back Matter

    Pages 331-336

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This edited volume considers the extent to which the Obama presidency matched the promises of hope and change that were held out in the 2008 election. Contributors assess the character of “change” and, within this context, survey the extent to which there was enduring change within particular policy areas, both domestic and foreign. The authors combine empirical detail with more speculative assessment of the limits and possibilities of change amidst a very dense institutional landscape and in an era of intense political polarization. Some see significant changes, the full consequences of which may only be evident in later years. Other authors in the collection present a markedly different picture and suggest that processes of change were not only limited and partial but at times leading the US in directions far removed from the promises of 2008. The book will make an important contribution to the debates about the Obama legacy.

• Obama
• theories of change
• reform processes
• political transformation
• political polarization
• us politics
• democracy

“This fine volume - the work of both established and younger scholars from the UK, continental Europe, and the United States, all of them connected to the UK's American Politics Group  - is a standout contribution to our growing understanding of Barack Obama's presidency.  Splendidly edited and organized, it sustains a clear and coherent framework in covering a broad range of political, social, economic and international issues that rose to the fore during Obama's tenure.  Wisely eschewing a grand narrative in favour of assessing the nuances and complexity of a consequential presidency, it is nevertheless persuasive in its assessment that Barack Obama's time in office could well have transformative significance for the future development of twenty-first century America.  This is a book that deserves to be read by both scholars and students of American politics.” (Iwan Morgan, Professor of US Studies, UCL, and author of “Reagan: American Icon” (2016))

• Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark

  Edward Ashbee

• University School of Government and International Affairs Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom

  John Dumbrell

Edward Ashbee is Associate Professor and Program Director of International Business and Politics at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and the author of The Right and the Recession (2015).


John Dumbrell is Professor of Government at Durham University, UK. He is the author of Clinton’s Foreign Policy (2009) and Rethinking the Vietnam War (2012). He is also editor of Issues in American Politics (2014).

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