Some political scientists have looked to the character and personality of individual presidents to explain their relative effectiveness in office. Explain why this is a difficult proposition. Discuss, moreover, Richard Neustadt’s influential portrait of presidential power and how it relates to presidential effectiveness.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Examining presidential power and effectiveness without context is difficult. Any president faces crises or decision points and while his or her personality can how he or she reacts, the reaction is only part of the examination of a president’s effectiveness. That is, every president would not react the same way, but the situation matters. Nonetheless, influential scholar Richard Neustadt has argued, all else being equal (i.e. no specific crisis), has immense informal power to persuade. For Neustadt, the power of an individual president is not automatic but must be developed, especially through skillful political action. Neustadt wrote that presidential power is the power of information, of presenting a credible threat to known and potential political enemies and, finally, of convincing allies and opponents that supporting the president is in their own self-interest. According to him, “The essence of a President’s persuasive task is to convince such men that what the White House wants of them is what they ought to do for their sake and on their own authority.”