1. Presidential Evaluation
1. “Savior” school
Omnipotent and benevolent (“modern” presidency)
Presidential strength and ambition would serve the national interest.
“Presidential influence contributes to the energy of the government and to the viability of public policy … What is good for the country is good for the president, and vice versa.” (Richard Neustadt)
Example presidents?

2. Three Schools of Presidential Evaluation
2. “Satan” school
Strength in the presidency harmful than helpful to the nation
James Barber’s psychological approach to a source of presidential pathology
“active-negative” character  trying to maximize power but born of a deep-seated and psychologically unhealthy need to dominate others
Example presidents?

3. Three Schools of Presidential Evaluation
3. “Samson” school
The unusually weak administrations of ______ and ________
Just like Samson who transgressed and had his strength
cut away
a large and growing gap between what presidents can do
and what they are expected to do (“expectation gap”)
The office’s constitutional dependence on other political
institutions
Political parties had grown too weak to help (1960s-70s)

4. Three Schools of Presidential Evaluation
Three Schools of Presidential Evaluation By the way, which school is missing?
Presidential Power
Political
Consequence
Savior model
strong
good
Satan model
dangerous
Samson model
weak
bad

5. How are Presidents actually Judged?
Arthur Schlesinger Sr.’s 1948 survey of historians on the
grade of each president
“great” “near great” “average” “below average” &“failure”
Does evaluation of presidents change over time?
Not much, but some exceptions
Truman (↑) and Eisenhower (↓)
Do scholars and citizens employ different evaluation standards?
What standards would you use when you
evaluate presidents?

6. Ratings of Presidential Performance
WSJ Survey in 2000
C-SPAN 2009 Survey
leadership-survey.aspx
Leadership Characteristics (C-SPAN)
Public Persuasion
Crisis Leadership
Economic Management
Moral Authority
International Relations
Administrative Skills
Relations with Congress
Vision/Setting An Agenda
Pursued Equal Justice For All
Performance within Context of Times

7. C-SPAN 2009 Survey (Top 1st through 25th)

8. C-SPAN 2009 Survey (26th through 42nd)

9. Presidential Evaluation: Some Questions
I. Do great crises encourage great presidential performance?
Do great times make for great leadership or great leaders
make great times?
Madison, Pierce, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover
vs. Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, Truman
Skowronek’s “Political Time” Presidency: “Has Obama called
for united America too soon to make politics of reconstruction?”

10. Presidential Evaluation: Some Questions
II. A bias in favor of assertive and energetic presidents?
John Quincy Adams, Coolidge, Taft suffer in this context
How is an energetic president different from an imperial
presidency?  LBJ, Nixon, and George W. Bush (?)

11. Presidential Evaluation: Some Questions
III. Performance in office vs. Achievements over a life-time?
Grant: a great general but a weak president
Madison: a superb constitutional architect yet an average president
Hoover: successful cabinet member but far less successful as a president
Carter: a Nobel Prize winner, yet low marks for his presidency

12. Presidential Evaluation: Some Questions
IV. Can we objectively compare presidents from different eras?
Leadership is truly contextual.
Seldom are different presidents facing with the same
situations.
(Ex) Jefferson and Polk praised for adding vast areas to the
territory of the United States, yet recent presidents cannot
duplicate those feats.

13. 미국정치론 중간고사 성적분포