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307 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1956)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0307 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD Alexander the Great once asked his architect, Dinocrates, to pick a site and then to draw plans for a new city worthy of Alexander's name. The imagination of the architect seemed equal to the commission. For in proposing Mount Athos in Greece as the site, Dinocrates noted that the contours of the place had a human form and that a city built on such grounds would necessarily have the same. Thus it would forever draw the admiration of later generations and would forever recall the glory of the man who inspired its building. But, said Alexander, recalling the barrenness and remoteness of Mount Athos, on what will the people live? That I have not thought of, said Dinocrates. Whereupon, the city of Alexandria was built in Egypt. To be sure, it lacked the heady terrain of Mount Athos. But it had an excellent harbor, an interior plain of rich soil, and the irrigating waters of the Nile. People could make a living there. What passed between Alexander and his architect in this matter can be read as a parable that has its application to American presidential campaigns. For in these campaigns, what holds our attention is the grandiloquent question of who shall be President, and what policies may be expected of the victor. What we overlook is of a piece with Alexander's prosaic but crucial point. It is that who- ever is chosen as the President, and whatever things are promised in his name, upon his election he will have to live with the Presidency itself and work his pur- poses through it. This number of THE ANNALS is addressed to that prosaic and crucial point. It is addressed to the Presidency as an organ of decision, divorced from the present political moment when men and parties are bidding to have the rule of it. The issues to the fore are these: First, what place does the Presidency hold in the life of America and the world? Second, what things are expected of the Presidency? Third, are its powers and its structural forms equal to the things expected of it? Fourth, if they are unequal, should any organic changes be made in the present structure of the Presidency? Each one of these questions invites a full-scale debate. Each encroaches on the others. All, moreover, branch and flare in so many directions as to demand an arbitrary limit to what might be included for comment within the small canvas of these pages. Many topics and many viewpoints that are germane to the leading questions have, of regrettable necessity, been laid to one side from the vetoing force of time, space, and printing budgets. Yet it is hoped that what has survived these imperious no-sayers may commend itself to the thoughtful attention of the reader. The hope is all the more fervent when one senses how much of modern political history can be written in terms of the quest among nations for an executive that is strong and responsible in the manner of its dealings with social challenges. Strength without responsibility has all too often led to tyranny. Responsibility vii

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