Our Fascination with the Presidency
or
The American Public and the President 

In The Presidency, presidential scholar Richard Pious writes:

"Far from being a stable institution that provides solidity
or unity to our politics, the American presidency is the most
unpredictable and unstable political institution in our nation".

Why do you think Pious makes this claim?

Why do you think Pious claims that the institution of the presidency is so "unstable"?

Some presidential scholars have posited the following explanations:  

1) Perhaps our constitutional structure creates instability!  

2) Perhaps the institution has grown so big that it is naturally unstable!  

3) Perhaps it is because it is the sole institution of our political system relying so heavily upon one person (and/or we have had "unstable" people in the office!)  

4) Perhaps because it is the "focal point" of our political system for the mass media and media coverage is schizophrenic!  

5) Perhaps it is because of the contradictory expectations which people have of both the institution and the person who occupies the office at any point in time!

During the course of the semester we will look at these possibilities.

Maybe our previous discussion on the "great concepts" will help:

Perhaps it is about system malfunction!

A matter of American cultural expectations!

A problem of organization

A problem of power!

Maybe we need to compare our executive to others!

Eventually we will look at various approaches to the study of the presidency.

First however, we need to put things into perspective.

Before we get to how people have studied the presidency we need to know:
why study the presidency?



One of the cornerstones of our study of the presidency is the analysis of
the relationship between the president and the people (ie., the popular connection).

Although there is really no direct connection between the two (remember we still have an Electoral College) the contemporary relationship which has developed is a reflection of :

  a) the historical relationship which has developed over time; and

b) the contemporary coverage of presidents by the mass media

No matter what, we have come to expect a lot from our presidents.

Many authors on the contemporary presidency have identified an expectations gap (the gap between what Americans expect their presidents to be able to do and what they actually accomplish.)

  Can any president meet the expectations which people now have of president!


                       In part, our expectations come from the actions of former presidents 

(think in terms of the power paradigm!).

In a number of instances, presidents have been identified as "great".

Who are they? What makes them great?

One of the best analyses is by Arthur Schlessinger, Jr.

C-Span Survey

Are our expectations logical?

Does our evaluation of presidents depend upon our own preferences? (see Rose)

If they are not, what impact do these expectations have on

contemporary presidents and the institution of the presidency?

Thomas Cronin offers us some useful insights.