POS 4412 Exam #2 Outline I. (The importance of the) Person of President a. Neustadt’s treatment in Presidential power and personal basis of power (largely this is review) • Power based on “persuasion” rather than “command”… a) Argues that presidents cannot lead directly. In other words, just because a president says he wants something done does not mean it will be done.b) Instead presidential power is a function of his or her ability to persuade relevant Washington actors that it is their best interest to cooperate. • Neustadt’s model of persuasive power (role of professional reputation, public prestige, and so forth) a) Presidents professional reputation = how Washington views the president ex) governors, military leaders, and congress. The better the reputation of the President, the easier it will be to facilitate negotiations to implement policy. b) Public Prestige= is basically how the public views the President. Even though the public has no direct association with policymaking, the public’s view of the president affects how legislation moves through the web of American gov’t. c) He also implies that a president should think and act prospectively, so the decision he makes today will aid his ability to persuade tomorrow. b. The importance and role of presidential personality • Barber’s treatment a) Importance of character, political style, and worldwideb) Barber’s personality types (emerging for activity-passivity and positivity-negativity dimensions)• 4 Personality Types- 1) Active-Positives : invest energy and enjoy the job. High self-esteem, relate well, and flexible with big goals. Ex) JFK, Carter, Ford, FDR, and H.W. Bush.2) Active-Negatives: intense effort, but do not enjoy the job. Ex) Hoover, Nixon, LBJ, and Wilson. 3) Passive-Positives : seeks to be loved, easily manipulated, low self-esteem is overcome by ingratiating personality, and superficially optimistic. Ex) Reagan 4) Passive-negatives: responds to a sense of duty, avoids power, and responds rather than initiates, avoids conflict and uncertainty. Ex) Dwight Eisenhowerc) Which personality is most dangerous? • Danger of active-negatives, inability to admit failure/weakness may fixate on failing line of policy. Ex) Johnsond) Criticisms of Barber’s approach? • Too subjective• More than two dimensions • External events and conditions more important than personality • Like Neustadt, reflects bias toward activist, liberal presidents. • Renshon’s assessment (emphasis on Clinton’s personality in class):• Clinton’s Personality: High-Risk, taking behavior in personal life. Had no model of limits on behavior.b) Character style emphasis on ambition, integrity, and relatedness.• Ambition: it is a drive to pursue and accomplish one’s objectives and values. Too much of it can be dysfunctional because it wraps perceptions, obscures reality, and tends toward rationalizing decisions rather than deciding problems rationally. • Integrity: it is the capacity to remain true to one’s ideals and beliefs, standing for something and acting on it. Integrity provides an ethical framework that makes it possible for people to see and understand themselves within the greater society.• Relatedness: how a person interacts with other. Interpersonal relations can be friendly or hostile, intimate or distant. • Greenstein’s treatment and his presidential assessments in The Presidential Difference (what are six qualities that Greenstein assesses, which does he think is the single most important, which modern presidents are especially strong and weak with various qualities?)a) Six qualities that relate to Presidential Performance=• Public Communication: HIGH=JFK,FDR, Reagan LOW= Clinton • Organizational capacity: HIGH= Eisenhower LOW= CARTER• Political Skills: HIGH= LBJ, Reagan LOW= Carter • Vision: HIGH= Nixon, Eisenhower LOW= H.W. Bush• Cognitive Style: HIGH= Nixon, Eisenhower, JFK LOW= Reagan, Truman • Emotional Intelligence: HIGH= Ford, H.W. Bush LOW= LBJ, Nixon, Clintonb) For Greenstein, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE is key. President’s ability to manage his/her emotions and turn them to constructive purposes, rather than being dominated by them and allowing them to diminish his/her leadership.II. PRESIDENT AND THE PUBLIC: a. Public approval and factors that affect it • Public Approval: the “in real time” assessment. Gallop: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way the President is handling his job?”• Approval Ratings:a) Role of Time- honeymoon followed by decay (mueller’s “Coalition of Minorities”) makes it inevitable that the President’s approval rate will decline.b) Role of Economyc) Role of international eventsd) Role of scandal b. Kernell’s Going Public Strategy: • Leadership strategy involves public appealsgeneralized “Force”/Pressure on other politicians (coercive strategy – costs and penalties).• “Bully in the pulpit of the Presidency”• Differs from Neustadt’s Public Prestige – which enhances Presidents ability to persuade/bargain others in D.C. • Why/ How: advances in technology and transportation, “outsiders” Presidents with weal ties to party and D.C. and inexperienced at bargaining/persuasion—experienced at appealing to the public.c. Rise of Presidential Polling and the Permanent Campaign: • Permanent campaign as a combination of image making and strategic calculation that turns governing into a perpetual campaign and “remarks gov’t into an instrument designed to sustain and elected officials popularity.”• Creation of polling spawned an immense industry for studying, manufacturing, organizing, and manipulating public voices in support of candidates and causes. III. PRESEIDENCY AND THE MEDIA:a. Nature of the relationship: • Reporters first obtained space in the white house in 1896, but it was Theodore Roosevelt who made the greatest strides in exploiting the new opportunities to reach the public provided by the mass-circulation press.• Presidents have found that they need the press because it is their primary link to the people.• Because of the importance of the press to the president, the white house goes to great lengths to encourage the administration policies. Efforts include: holding press conferences, interviews, and daily handouts. b. Press Office and Press Secretary: • The President’s press secretary is the