Presidents, Persistent Leadership, and National Service

• In Event: Presidential Leadership and Political Time

Abstract

This paper traces the involvement of American presidents in the promotion of volunteering since the end of the New Deal. I focus on the strategies used by Congress and the president to promote community service in several instances including Richard Nixon’s creation of the federal agency ACTION in 1971, the passage of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 during George H.W. Bush’s administration, the passage of the National Community Service and Trust Act in 1993 by Bill Clinton, and subsequent initiatives undertaken by George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. In each case, I attempt to describe and explain the president’s role in the policymaking process, as well as the purpose of their public appearances and rhetoric about volunteering. Overall, this account attempts to identify and explain persistent presidential leadership in a non-divisive, bipartisan policy area, which also has powerful symbolic implications for shaping the orientation of citizens towards their communities and altering their expectations for government intervention.

Author

• Samuel Fontaine, University of California, Santa Barbara