Dr John Hart is the former head of the Department of Political Science at the Australian National University. He is currently a visitor in the School of History. Dr Hart has also taught at Georgetown University, was a Visiting Professor at the American University, spent six months as a Visiting Fellow at the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies and was an American Council of Learned Societies Visiting Research Scholar. He is a specialist on the American presidency and is best known for his work on the operation of the presidential staff system. He is the author of The Presidential Branch: From Washington to Clinton, a contributor to the four-volume Encyclopedia of the American Presidency and the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences. He has also authored numerous articles in books, academic journals and newspapers on various aspects of American politics.