The American political system has many features that set itapart from other governments of the world, but not all areequally apparent. One distinctive aspect is the length andimportance of the transition period from one presidentialadministration to another. In most countries the passage ofpower occurs almost as soon as the election results are known(consider, e.g., the rapid assumption of power by PresidentKostunica after Slobodan Milosevic admitted defeat in theSeptember 2000 Yugoslav election), but in the United Statesroughly ten weeks elapse between the election and inaugu-ration. The American approach, as Charles Jones puts it inthis outstanding book, is to transfer power at a "leisurelypace."