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Accidental Presidents: Death, Assassination, Resignation, and Democratic Succession
Author(s) -
ABBOTT PHILIP
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2005.00269.x
Subject(s) - ecological succession , democracy , accidental , politics , legitimacy , political science , political economy , power (physics) , democratic legitimacy , sociology , law , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , acoustics , biology
One of the commonly stated virtues of modern constitutional democracies is their capacity to ensure reliable and accepted methods of political succession through election. This essay focuses on one particular, though not uncommon, complication in the democratic mode of political succession: American vice presidents who assume office as a result of the death, assassination, or resignation of a president. Three basic strategies by “accidental presidents” to establish and enhance their legitimacy are identified. The efforts of accidental presidents provide a framework to assess a democratic theory of succession, for a certain resiliency is necessary to respond to irregular modes of succession yet excessive plasticity might threaten election as the privileged method of succession.