Do Presidents Lead or Follow the Public? Using Evidence From Rhetoric to Assess Presidential Strategy
Cunion, William E.
This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/82560
Description
Title
Do Presidents Lead or Follow the Public? Using Evidence From Rhetoric to Assess Presidential Strategy
Author(s)
Cunion, William E.
Issue Date
2003
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Paul J. Quirk
Department of Study
Political Science
Discipline
Political Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Political Science, General
Language
eng
Abstract
I seek to address a fundamental question about the contemporary presidency: Do presidents lead public opinion, or do they mainly follow it? The question is difficult to examine systematically, partly because it is problematic to compare presidential policies with poll results systematically. Additionally, most have approached this question using a very narrow conception of public opinion. The proposal here is for an approach to address the question by relying solely on a content analysis of presidential rhetoric. My thesis is that public leadership can be gauged by analyzing the content of what the president says in his public addresses. Instead of analyzing polls, and presidents' responses to them, I employ a method of characterizing the strategies of speeches on the basis of a content analysis of the speech alone. These speeches are coded for features of rhetoric that reveal efforts to move opinion against resistance: acknowledgement of public fears or opposition, recognition of costs or risks, mentions of objections or counter-arguments, references to support from experts, elaboration of causal claims, and appeals to duty. Conceptually, this approach will bring us closer to identifying public leadership, as it is built upon a model of public opinion that emphasizes the process of communication between elites and masses. The result is a new tool for examining the conditions under which leadership is more or less likely to occur.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
