Failures of Transformational Leadership: A Revaluation of Stephen Skowronek’s Political Time and the Political Leadership of Reconstructive and Disjunctive Presidents

• In Event: The US Presidency and Executive Power I

Abstract

This paper critically examines Stephen Skowronek's theory of political time by exploring its limitations and anomalies, particularly through the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Skowronek’s framework situates presidents within cycles of regime rise and decay and provides a lens to evaluate political leadership. While the theory remains a powerful tool for understanding historical trends, contemporary political anomalies necessitate its reevaluation.
Through comparative analysis of historical and modern presidencies, I identify instances where political leaders failed to exercise transformational leadership despite having the opportunity, including Joe Biden. By integrating realignment literature and reexamining Skowronek’s concept of secular time, this study illustrates how periods of disjunction can create opportunities for a decaying regime’s party to reestablish dominance. It challenges the assumption that regime change must come from opposition parties and argues that new coalitions can emerge within decaying regimes under the right structural conditions and leadership.
Ultimately, this paper calls for a more nuanced understanding of political time that accounts for the interaction between structural forces, individual agency, and secular trends. By doing so, it offers a revised perspective on how political regimes rise, decay, and sometimes reemerge, providing insights into the potential trajectories of contemporary American politics. As the boundaries of Skowronek’s framework are tested by modern developments, the need for a dynamic and adaptive approach to understanding presidential leadership and regime transformation becomes ever more apparent.

Author

• Ryan Pettibone, University at Albany, SUNY