The Behavior of the Presidential Candidates in the White House - Literature review Example

James David Barber Introduction James David Barber was one of the most dignified luminaries of the modern day USA. He was born in the of West Virginia in the year 1930. The education of Mr. Barber received impetus when he graduated from the University of Chicago. After his graduation, he completed his masters in Political Science from there. After that, he did his Ph.D from Yale. His excellence in the subject earned him a place in the Duke University as the chairperson. In addition to this designation, he also held the position of the chairperson of the Board of Directors in Amnesty International. Mr. Barber was revered all over the USA as a dignified political scientist and he served various organizations like the “Association to Unite the Democracies” and “Committee to rescue Liberian children”. (Schoenbaum Library at the University of Charleston). However, Mr. James David Barber is most popularly known for his extensive study on the Presidential characteristics in USA. In his study, he has extensively sought after the characteristics of the US presidents and their performance as a candidate. The book has been a milestone in the history of the US political science. The book points out the how the voters can predict the behavior of the presidential candidates in the White House after they are elected. It is one of the most important points for the voters to consider before they cast their votes and the book has been largely based on this subject. For the purpose of the evaluation of the characteristics of the Presidents, Mr. Barber evaluated the characteristics of the past Presidents and their performance. Through the study, Mr. Barber has been largely successful in pointing out various characteristics, which would serve as indicators of good presidential candidates. The book deals in extensive study and research of the history of politics in the USA and throws up many questions. Mr. James considered his work“strange” for this reason. The book was written over a substantial period and enabled the readers to understand the characteristics of the good presidential candidates. The characteristics were helpful for the voters to find out the right man for the job. (Barber) The essay deals with the work of James David Barber and its effectiveness on the subject. In this essay an evaluation of the approach taken by Mr. Barber has also been made in completing his study and the usefulness of the study to the people. The Presidential Character The book Presidential Character by James David Barber is one of a kind book in the field of political science, which deals in the selection of the right candidates for the job. In his book, Mr. Barber has underlined some of the important characteristics that have to be taken into account for the selection of the candidates. In his opinion, the people are essentially making a prediction when they are voting for a particular candidate. The prediction is made about the degree of efficiency that will be put in by the candidate in the future. People more often than not predicts wrongly in the selection of the right candidates. Therefore, the book was written for assisting the citizens to select the right candidate. (Barber; The Presidential Character) According to Mr. Barber, to predict the nature of a candidate, people must see the person as one of their own and his struggle in the political world. In this way, the people can gauge the characteristics of the man better. In the USA, President is the pinnacle of the political world. People care less about the political parties but when it comes to the President, they take special care in evaluating him. He is considered a leader of the country in true sense who is responsible for all the policies and well being of the citizens. Unlike in England, where the king and the queen are considered as guardians of the country, USA has the President to look up to as the leader. He has an important place in the society and in all the activities of the country. The US people do not understand the complex world of the political parties. However, they find it simpler to see the President at the helm of all the affairs in the political world. Thus, the President is the most distinguished personality of the political world of the USA. Distinguished Presidents like John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt etc. have influenced the history of the USA politics. They succeed in rising above the quasi-religious pressures and the degradation of the moral values and they established the White House as the church of USA politics. (Barber; The Presidential Character) It is a difficult process to understand the characters of a good presidential candidate. Even the well-informed citizens predicted wrong when offered with a choice of the Presidential candidates. The characteristic of a man states that it is easy to evaluate the errors but it is often difficult to predict the good characteristics of a man. The prediction would require the use of the correct tools and a look at the history of the US politics. In the prediction of a good presidential candidate, the author has put forward some points, which will be evaluated in the following paragraphs. (Barber; The Presidential Character) The author has stated that the personality of the candidate is an important evaluator of his efficiency in making decisions on nontrivial matters. However, it is wrong to say that the personality of the candidate will decide his stature as the President in all the matters. The degree at which the President is involved emotionally with the political matters states his candidature. It has to be noted that a President is a common person like all the citizens and like all the people, he has two sides to his character. One is the outer ring which helps him to take into account all the rational points and take decision while the other one is the inner emotional self. These two sides have to be connected in an efficient manner to make a person a good candidate for the job of the President. (Barber; The Presidential Character). Like all the persons in the country the personality of the President is divided into patterns. The character, knowledge of the world and his style are characteristics, which define his candidature of the President. One of the most distinguished traits of a President is his style of dealing with the politics in his country and the outside world. The President in the USA has to perform three most important activities- “rhetoric, personal relations, and homework.” (The Presidential Character, 3) The style of a President may depend on the preference of the activities. The knowledge of the world politics is one of the most important traits of a good candidature of the President. This involves the knowledge of the religious beliefs and the political patterns of the world. This kind of knowledge helps the President to update his understanding of the situation and helps him to take decisions. The strength of the character is also one of the most vital traits of the President, which helps him to take decisions. (Barber; The Presidential Character) The candidature of the President also depends on the adaptive ability of the President at the aftermath of the political situation of the Country. The expectation associated with the new Presidential candidate and the pressure associated with it is also one of the most important factors in the selection of the right candidate. The political sphere of the USA consists of various parties and the support he receives from them is important in shaping up the future of the President. The future of the support mix is determined during the campaigns of the candidate. The people in the USA look up to the President as a leader and a figure of assurance. Therefore, the environment of expectations is high for the new candidate. The President may face situations like the depression and the wars, which puts the whole country into a precarious situation. The ability of the President to deal with these factors shapes the future of his candidature. (Barber; The Presidential Character) The history of the early life of the candidate is one of the most important ways to determine the future of his Presidential candidature. A look into the early life will enable the voters to see how the candidate dealt with situations in his life. The early life of a person is experimental and his character can be gauged from the way he handled himself during this time. The character of a person is shaped in the early life. A strong childhood enables a person to deal with the adulthood in a better manner and this is reflected by the decisions he take. Therefore, it can be stated that the development of the person takes place in the childhood and the relationship he shares with his parents and peers. (Barber; The Presidential Character) The author in his book has determined four types of character present in the Presidents. He has studied the characteristics of the history of the political world of the USA and has come to the conclusion that these characteristics have been very influential in determining the right candidature of the Presidential candidate. One of the most important traits of the Presidents is the activity-passivity. The amount of the work put by the Presidents in his work determines his stature as the right candidate of the Presidential post. The US President Lyndon Johnson put much effort in his work while Calvin Coolidge was the opposite type. The second trait was the positive-negative effect on the functions of one person. This can be described as the level of enjoyment a person enjoys while in his work. This is true in all the other activities of the world and for a high responsibility job like that of the US President, the factor is one of the most important. According to a close associate of President Roosevelt, he enjoyed being in the power. The enjoyment factor is one of the most important criteria of determining a leader from an ordinary person. The above-mentioned traits described by the author leads to the four characteristics inherent in the candidates of the President. (Barber; The Presidential Character) The first characteristic is the active-positive impact of the activity. This characteristic generally underlines that there is a positive correlation between the effort of the man and the rewards. The rewards here are the support, emotional well being etc. of the individual. The candidate enjoys his growth as a person during the tenure of his leadership. The second characteristic seen in the Presidential candidates is the Active-negative effect. In this case, there is a difference between the efforts of the individual and the rewards received by him. The person projects himself as a struggler and aggressive. In most cases, he fails to control the feelings of aggression and thus, his public image suffers a jolt. The third type is the passive-positive type where the candidate is very amicable and is not aggressive. As a reward for not being aggressive, the candidate in most cases finds rewards like affection and encouragement from the others. However, this type of characteristic makes the possibility of taking bad decisions likely. The author has described a fourth type of characteristic inherent in the Presidential candidates. This is the Passive-negative characteristic. This type of the characteristic emphasizes a person with low self-esteem. The person does not want to be involved in conflicts and want to keep everyone happy. Therefore, he receives negative rewards for his qualities. If we take into account all the four characteristics of the Presidential candidates, we can infer that the first type of the characteristics would always want to achieve more and is dedicated toward results. The persons possessing the second characteristics are after power while the third type is looking for rewards like affection and love. The person with the fourth characteristic puts emphasis on the civic virtue. (Barber; The Presidential Character) Washington, Roosevelt and Kennedy fit in the first type while the second type consisted of the John Adams, AB Lincoln and Nixon. James Madison is the example of the third type. Throughout the history of USA politics, there have been Presidents who were instrumental in determining the future of the politics in the country. (Authorstream) Approach to the study James David Barber spends a considerable amount of time in his life studying the Presidential candidates of the USA and determining the characteristics. The time taken to complete his book is close to 25 years and during the period; he studied then history and the contemporary politics of USA. Barber became prominent during the election of 1972 when there was a face-off between George McGovern and Richard Nixon. The column published by Mr. Barber in the Times Magazine during the elections claimed Nixon as active-negative and McGovern as active-positive. Dispelling all the theories Nixon defeated McGovern in the election. The insights provided by Barber proved wrong and he assumed a place of controversy in the US media. In the next election consisting of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, he refused to give any insights. The theories of Barber were obsolete under the conditions and his popularity as a serious scholar fell in the eyes of the public. However, it can be inferred that the theories proposed by Barber were serious in nature. Barber based his study on the psychological perspective of the American Presidency. The Presidency of USA is unique in nature because of the importance of the position. The Presidential election is held in the country after every four years, which is unique among the democracies of the world. The citizens of the country considered the President as the leader and they followed all the decisions taken by the President. A look into the book of Barber reveals that he studied the psychology of the candidates for Presidential elections. The study undertook by Barber was influenced by the psychological mix of the Presidents and the sentiments of the public at large towards the institution. In his book the “The Presidential Characteristic” he used the example of Nixon to make the readers understand the essence of his theories. He considers childhood as the base for the future and the environment a man faces in the early age shapes the characteristics. According to Barber, the political leaders who possess high self-esteem are the right person to lead the country. Barber’s study is based on the selection of the right candidates for the post of President. For this, the author has studied the history of the US political history and looked into the activities of each one of them for classifying them into different types of characteristics. The four characteristics described by Barber in his book found some Presidents in each category. The activities undertaken by the Presidents helped Barber to divide them into different categories. For example, according to him Lyndon Johnson was one of the most significant Presidents USA has seen over the years because he worked in his office vigorously. Therefore, most of Barber’s work was a combination of the psychological traits and study of the history of the US politics. (Nelson) Effectiveness of the study The study of Barber was controversial and it attracted a lot of criticism from eminent scholars and students of the period. His prediction of the 1972 election was wrong and there were eminent writings by scholars attacking his stance of his characteristics. His theories and arguments in the book were considered superficial and sometimes foolish. They may have an appeal to the unknowledgeable community of the country but within the sphere of the knowledgeable his theories failed to generate the value. For this reason, Barber began to lose popularity in the intellectual community of the country and in some spheres, he was known as the “popularizer”. The theories produced by Barber were flawed and was in relation to the general conception of a person assuming power. The Presidential candidates in the USA were unique in their feature because of the political consequences. The citizens of the country were psychologically and politically motivated to vote for the candidates. Barber constructed his theories with the help of psychology and the study of the US political history. However, the prediction of the candidature depends on other factors as well. The general condition of the country and the psychology of the citizens decide to a large extent the candidature of the President. Though Barber studied the psychological traits of the Presidents he found the results of the study by studying the history of the US politics. Therefore, he did not take into account the recent developments of the society and the economy, which in most cases decide the candidature. Though, the theories proposed by Barber were rendered illogical it has to be believed that they were serious theories. The book provided the base for the citizens to predict to a certain extent the right candidature of the Presidents. (Nelson) Conclusions The study conducted by James David Barber was one of the landmarks in the history of politics in the US politics. The book basically deals in the prediction of the Presidents for the future. For this, he proposed different theories in his book assigning specific characteristics, which would be useful in determining good Presidents for the future. For the construction of the theories he studied the history of the US politics and the psychology traits of the past Presidents. He devised the specific traits which when observed in a candidate will determine his appropriateness for the post. However, in his study, Barber did not take the effect of the social changes and the psychology of the citizens, which are important constituents in the matter. His study has been useful in dividing the Presidents of the USA into different groups according to their activities and usefulness. However, the subject of prediction is not a well-documented trait in his writing though the usefulness of his theories cannot be abolished. References: 1. About James David Barber, Schoenbaum Library at the University of Charleston. n.d, Available at: http://www.ucwv.edu/library/barberbio.aspx (Accessed on 16th March, 2010) 2. Authorstream. Presidential character. n.d. Available at: http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Wanderer-36648-Presidential-character-Coming-full-circle-Politics-decision-making-actors-make-as-Entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/ (Accessed on 16th March, 2010) 3. The Presidential Character. ACAD, 1985, Available at: http://acad.fcps.org/ss/puch/apps/readings/barber.pdf (Accessed on 16th March, 2010) 4. Nelson, Michael. James David Barber and the psychological presidency. The Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn, (1980), pp. 650-657. Available at: http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1980/autumn/nelson-james-david-barber/ (Accessed on 16th March, 2010) 5. Barber, James. The Presidential Character. 3rd edition Prentice Hall. 1985 Read More