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Begin New Search Political Geography America Content Type Journal Article Journal Critical Review

1. Demagoguery, Statesmanship, And The American Presidency

Author:
James W. Ceaser
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
Worries about “the rhetorical presidency” ultimately concern the danger of presidential demagoguery. As such, they echo an important theme of the Founders, who erected several barriers to the emergence of the president as demagogue in chief. In the ancient sources on which the Founders partly drew, the worry was the popular or pseudo-popular leader who seizes on widespread envies, fears, or hopes in the service of his political career—in contrast to the statesman, who pursues the public good and is, therefore, less interested in how to gain office than in how to use it. Later iterations emphasized the “superstitious,” “prejudiced,” or ideological nature of demagogic appeals. When Woodrow Wilson proposed that the president should seize the public-policy initiative in the name of the people, he sought to insulate the presidency from charges of demagoguery by arguing that no leader who spoke falsely on behalf of the people could expect to win the office. True adepts of the “progress” of public opinion, hence of the public good, are non-demagogic by definition. Although one is hard pressed to find an American president who can unambiguously be called demagogic, one does find demagoguery among presidential candidates, especially during their campaigns for party nomination.
Political Geography:
America

2. The Rhetorical Presidency and The Contemporary Media Environment

Author:
Susan Herbst
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
Presidential rhetoric can matter immensely in moments of national crisis, and even during times of less melodrama. But the possibilities for rhetorical impact are slipping away from American presidents. In light of the multiplication of presidential spokespeople, commentators, on-line editors, and audiences, and the relative intimacy of other personalities viewed by those audiences, one might posit that “presidential speech,” as described and analyzed by Tulis, is hurtling toward its demise. Tulis's important thesis may therefore need some serious updating.
Political Geography:
America

3. Ppresidents' Party Affiliations and Their Communicatin Strategies

Author:
Mel Laracey
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
More than half of all pre-twentieth century presidents communicated with the public on policy matters. Some gave speeches or wrote public letters and messages, while others utilized the facade of a presidential newspaper. The partisan affiliations of the presidents who communicated with the public suggest that even before the full articulation of the concept of the “rhetorical” presidency by Woodrow Wilson, there was underlying disagreement among American political leaders about the proper role of the public in influencing public policy—and of the role of the president in influencing public opinion.
Political Geography:
America

4. Presidential Rhetoric from Wilson to "W": Popular Politics Meets Recalcritant Reality

Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
With the publication of Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency, Woodrow Wilson's contribution to a major transformation in the American presidency—and in American politics—came to be recognized. But while Wilson believed that the danger of presidential demagoguery was overrated, forms of demagoguery that he underestimated have undermined the legitimacy of America's presidential democracy, in both its Wilsonian, plebiscitary form; and in the rule by decree to which presidents sometimes turn when their rhetoric does not suffice. The basic problem that Wilson overlooked is the mismatch between effective rhetoric and what can actually be accomplished, even by the most popular of presidents.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
America

5. Allegories of Reading Tulis

Author:
Diane Rubenstein
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
Jeffrey Tulis's The Rhetorical Presidency is deceptively titled. It is not about rhetoric or political symbolism or even about the American presidency as such, as were many postmodern studies produced in the Reagan era. Rather, Tulis re-situates rhetoric: a minor theme in a story about the presidency becomes an important avenue into profound questions of political order and republican governance. Like Tulis, I approach my thesis obliquely; I distinguish his from other, seemingly similar, works (and realign him with other rhetorical readers, such as Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida) to underscore what I see as the book's lasting legacy: its explication of the double binds and central paradoxes of republican governance (seen, for example, in presidential prerogative), and its articulation of the role of rhetoric in institutional transformation.
Topic:
Government and Governance
Political Geography:
America

6. "Publicity" And the Progressive-Era Origins of Modern Politics

Author:
Adam D. Sheingate
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
The Rhetorical Presidency places great importance on the transformative power of political ideas. For Tulis, Progressive ideas informed the rhetorical practices of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—practices that reconstituted the American presidency. They did so, in part, by trading on the ambiguous nature of the concept of “publicity”—which at once evoked liberal ideals of public deliberation and transparency, and modern practices of manipulative communication. In turn, the new practices of publicity revolutionized not only the American presidency, but American politics as a whole.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
America

7. The Rhetorical Presidency In Retrospect

Author:
Jeffrey K. Tulis
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
The Rhetorical Presidency is not, principally, a book about rhetoric or the presidency. Rather, rhetoric and the presidency are windows on the American constitutional order as a whole. Critics have greatly enhanced the historical narrative but have not undermined the principal historical and theoretical claims. Recent changes in the American polity are best understood as exacerbations of problems described in the book, rather than as fundamental alterations of our political world. Contemporary political pathologies can still be diagnosed as a product of the contending imperatives of the new constitutional order that has been layered on top of the old one. And while problems may be attenuated by a creative melding of the old and new orders, they cannot be solved within the confines of American constitutionalism, as it has been traditionally understood.
Political Geography:
America