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10881. 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

10882. A rhetorical judiciary, too?

Author:
Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Jeffrey Gottfried
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
Into Jeffrey Tulis's argument that “the rhetorical presidency signals and constitutes a fundamental transformation of American politics” he inserts parenthetically the question, “Has the rhetorical presidency now given birth to the rhetorical judiciary?” Whether the rhetorical presidency birthed or simply predated the rhetorical judiciary is open to question. The existence of the rhetorical judiciary is not. Since the publication of The Rhetorical Presidency, judges and their interlocutors have ratified one of the insights that grounded Tulis's question, while challenging another. They have borne out his fear that judges would increasingly respond to attack; his worry about the vacuity of confirmation hearings for those nominated to the Supreme Court, however, has not been similarly confirmed.

10883. 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

10884. The Rhetorical Presidency and The Partisan Echo Chamber

Author:
Nicole Mellow
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
The rise of a partisan Congress can aggravate some of the pathologies of the rhetorical presidency identified by Jeffrey Tulis: reckless policy production, and the resulting public disillusionment with an overpromising government. In some cases, such as the debate over the invasion of Iraq, the unified ranks of the president's party amplify the president's simplistic rhetoric, reducing policy deliberation and aggravating public disappointment when reality turns out to be more complex. When combined with divided government, however, partisanship can work to produce deliberative compromises that mitigate these pathologies, as exemplified by the welfare-reform legislation enacted by a Republican Congress under a Democratic president in 1996.
Topic:
Government

10885. The Rhetorical and Administrative Presidencies

Author:
Sidney M. Milkis
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
The modern presidency emerged not from an effort to escape constitutional propriety, as Tulis argues, but, rather, to emancipate presidents from the localized political parties of the nineteenth century, which had come to be viewed as sites of provincial and corrupt forms of popular rule. As the troubled tenure of George W. Bush suggests, contemporary presidents are torn between the public expectation that they stand apart from party politics and act as the chief executive of the administrative state; and their role as party leaders, which links them to political allies in Congress and loyalists in the electorate. In its contribution to the development of a “new” national programmatic party system, the Bush administration reveals the potential for a novel, disturbing meld of party and administration, in which presidents seek to exploit the powers of the modern executive office for partisan gain.

10886. The Puzzle of the Rhetorical Presidency

Author:
Thomas L. Pangle
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
Jeffrey Tulis's classic study traces the central dilemmas of today's presidency to Woodrow Wilson's invention of the full-blown “rhetorical presidency”: a radicalized version of Theodore Roosevelt's essential rhetorical supplement to the Founders' inadequate conception of the office. But what is Tulis's teaching as to how we ought to evaluate this transformation? Tulis shows that our system suffers from a profound constitutional contradiction, with attendant deleterious consequences for our civic life; and he spotlights major virtues of TR's “middle way.” What, then, holds Tulis back from endorsing that “moderate” way as superior, even in principle, to the Wilsonian system under which we now live?

10887. 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

10888. When the president speaks, how do the people respond?

Author:
Paul J. Quirk
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Critical Review
Institution:
Critical Review Foundation
Abstract:
Tulis's critique of popular presidential leadership raises several questions about public opinion: Do modern, rhetorically inclined presidents influence the public? What types of presidential rhetoric might, in principle, mislead or manipulate the public? And is the net result that the people are led into error and distortion in their policy opinions? The public-opinion literature, which has assiduously documented the public's ignorance about politics and policy, might seem, at first glance, to offer grounds for an unequivocal “yes” to the third question. But most scholars of public opinion discount public ignorance and defend an optimistic view of the citizenry's political competence. The more convincing arguments and evidence, however, support more critical views. There is ample reason to worry about the consequences of policy making driven by popular rhetoric, and thus to consider whether any remedies for plebiscitary democracy might be found.

10889. 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

10890. "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