Questions of Executive Power: Foundations, Assumptions, and Rhetoric

Session Submission Type: In-Person Created Panel

Session Description

The papers in this panel examine a fundamental question in the study of the presidency and executive politics: What is power? Edwards aims to evaluate how the assumptions that executives make affect the decision-making. Using the Korean War as the test case of the power of premises, Edwards shows that though the relevant decision makers during the Korean War had extensive national security experience, the faculty premises on which they relied their decisions were key contributing factors to decision-making failures during the War. Cavari, Yoel, and Lowenkamp ask why presidents often make references to their predecessors in speeches and remarks. Analyzing references to other presidents in presidential rhetoric from Reagan through Trump, Cavari, Yoel, and Lowenkamp find that mentioning former presidents is a political tool that presidents use routinely when justifying their policies to the American people, with presidents more likely to use the technique during their re-election campaigns and toward the end of their term in office. Waterman and Pierre analyze how presidents use the word “power” when they communicate with others. Presenting data from 18th and 19th century presidents, Waterman and Pierre seek to answer how presidents characterize their own power, how they refer to the power of other political actors, and whether references to power change over time. Fontaine and Gomez examine the impact of social media on presidential public leadership strategies. Employing a mixed-method approach, Fontaine and Gomez test their theory of opportunistic presidential leadership using Twitter data.

Sub Unit

• Division 23: Presidents and Executive Politics

Individual Presentations

• Prisoners of Their Premises - George C. Edwards, Texas A&M University

• In the Name of the President - Benjamin Yoel; Hannah Lowenkamp; Amnon Cavari, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya

• What Presidents Mean by Power: Nineteenth Century Views - Richard W. Waterman, University of Kentucky; Sherelle Roberts-Pierre, University of Kentucky

• The Social Media Presidency: Donald Trump, Twitter, and Party Discipline - Samuel Fontaine; Daniel M Gomez, University of California Santa Barbara

Chair

• John A. Dearborn Vanderbilt University

Discussants

• John A. Dearborn Vanderbilt University

• Bethany Bowra Florida International University