The Uses and Abuses of Presidential RatingsDebates about the uses of presidential ratings raise important questions about the accuracy of grouping leaders into single categories. Categories serve to identify some common features within a group, but they also mask important differences, which may distinguish a person significantly from others in the same category. The small number of presidents may make the value of subdividing them minimal, especially given the range of qualities by which we evaluate presidential leadership. Depending on the criteria used, a president may move sharply up or down in the survey -- presidents such as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, both of whom faced scandals in their administrations but also had notable policy achievements, are good examples. Yet rating presidents continues to be a favourite pastime of scholars and journalists, and new surveys always spark heated discussion about why the rankings of certain presidents have changed from previous surveys. This new and timely volume summarises the debates and assesses the uses of presidential ratings in light of those discussions. While presidential ratings surveys do generalise presidential performance and cannot capture all of a president's qu |
Contents
Presidential Ratings Lessons and Liabilities | 1 |
Part I How Does the Public Evaluate Presidents? | 23 |
Ranking the Presidents Continuity and Volatility | 25 |
Evaluating the President The Publics Perspective through the Prism of Pollsters | 41 |
Part II How Does Political Partisanship Influence Presidential Ratings? | 49 |
Presidents and Significance Partisanship as a Source of Perceived Greatness | 51 |
Partisan Biases in Presidential Ratings Ulysses Woodrow and Calvin We Hardly Knew Ye | 65 |
Reflections of a Presidency Rater | 79 |
Purpose Criteria Consequences | 89 |
Commentary | 91 |
Afterword | 103 |
Of Pantheons Rankings and Reputations | 105 |
Contributors | 117 |
Index | 121 |
Common terms and phrases
Adams administration American American presidency appear approval Arthur asked assessing average become Bill Blessing bottom Buchanan Bush Carter century Cleveland Clinton conducted Congress conservative Coolidge course criteria Democratic effect Eisenhower election evaluations example expected failure followed Franklin future George Grant greater Greenstein Harding higher historians important interest Jackson James James Piereson Jefferson John Johnson judge judgments Kennedy leaders leadership less liberal Lincoln Magazine Nixon noted opinion participants particularly partisan partisanship party percent performance political poll popular positive present presidential ratings presidents problem professional qualities question ranking presidents rankings Rating the Presidents Reagan recent Republicans reputation responses Roosevelt Schlesinger Schlesinger's scholars significant similar Studies successful survey symposium Truman United University values Washington White House Wilson World worst York
References to this book
Dead Last: The Public Memory of Warren G. Harding's Scandalous Legacy Phillip G. Payne Limited preview - 2009 |