James David Barber

Perspectives on the Presidency

Aaron Wildavsky

A Paradigm of Accentuations

Stage of Defintion Character	Words Criteria of Self-Judgement	Work Orientation toward actions	Persons Affective response to self and others	Developmental/ Indivative Phase Childhood
World View	Ideological investments	View of social causality	View of human nature, loyalties	Adolescence
Style	Rhetoric	Decision management	Personal relations	Early adulthood
Climate of Expectations	Legitimizing	Politicizing	Normalizing	Nomination and campaign
Power Situation	Public support	Washington support	White House support	Election and inauguration

"'Character' comes from the Greek word for engraving; it is what life has marked into a man's being. 'Style' is the stylus or instrumentation by which a man marks his environment. A complete character and style analysis for an individual political leader requires a closer examination of his life history, with special attention to periods in which self-esteem is linked with experiments in adaptation. For comparative purposes, however, it is useful to begin with cruder first approximations, sorting the Presidents into rough types as tending to accentuate certain broad character and style features".

"The general character tendencies are indicated by a combination of two simple dimensions, activity-passivity and positive-negative affect toward one's activity. These are independent dimensions; they interact to produce four types:

Active-positive The combination represents a congruence between action and affect typically based on relatively high self-esteem and relative success in relating to the environment. There is an orientation towards productiveness as a value and an ability to move flexibly among various orientations toward action as rational adaptation to opportunities and demands. The self is seen as developing over time toward relatively well-defined personal goals. The emphasis on rational mastery in this pattern can lead to mistakes in appreciating important political irrationalities.

Active-negative The basic contradiction is between relatively intense effort and relatively low personal reward for that effort. The activity has a compulsive quality; politics appears as a means for compesating for power deprivations through ambitious striving. The stance towards the environment is aggressive and the problem of managing aggressive feelings is persistent. The self-image is typically vague and temporally discontinuous. Life is a hard struggle to achieve and hold power, hampered by the condemnations of a perfectionist conscience.

Passive-positive This is the receptive, compliant, other-directed character whose life is a search for affection as a reward for being agreeable and cooperative rather than personally assertive. The contradiction is between low self-esteem (on grounds of feeling unlovable, unattractive) and a superficial optimism. A hopeful attitude helps the person deny inferiority and elicit encouragement from others. The dependence and fragility of this character orientation make disappointment in politics likely.

Passive-negative The factors are consistent but do not account for the presence of the person in a political role. That is explained by a character-rooted orientation toward doing dutiful service; the compensation is for low self-esteem based on a sense of uselessness. Typically the person is relatively well-adapted to certain nonpolitical roles, but lacks the experience and flexibility to perform effectively as a political leader. The tendency is to withdraw from the conflict and uncertainty of politics to an emphasis on vague principles (particularly prohibitions) and procedural arrangements".

Typology developed from level of activity and affect toward activity: