Presidency & power to persuade

2. Neustadt’s Presidential
Model
Presidential Power and Modern Presidents,
1960

3. Driving question: How would you rate President
Biden’s leadership so far (1 out of 4 years)
according to Neustadt’s Presidential Model? Is it
too early to determine or not?
Objective:
1.) Understand the characteristics of Richard
Neustadt’s “Presidential Leadership” model.
2.) Apply the model to past presidents
3.) Attempt to apply it to the current sitting
president and predict how the current president
will be judged or what he needs to do to improve.

4. Most people think of the U.S.
presidency as the greatest, most
ambitious amount of power a
person can aspire to achieve.
(After all, the president is the leader of the free world)

5. But according to
Richard Neustadt,
author of the
acclaimed book
“Presidential Power
and the Modern
Presidents (1960),” this
is not the case.
June 26, 1919 – October 31, 2003

6. In fact, the president alone has little
authority over the policies and
actions that go through Washington.
What did he mean by this?

7. Argument # 1: The power to persuade
Nuestadt, an American political scientist who served as an
advisor for many U.S. presidents, found that the
president’s true, supreme power is their power to
persuade and bargain, not to command.
When a president has to resort to commanding people, he
is showing weakness. Commands only work in very special
circumstances. “The essence of a President’s persuasive
task is to convince such men that what the White House
wants of them is what they ought to do for their sake and
on their authority.”

9. He certainly cannot act alone. After all,
we live in a republic – not a dictatorship.

10. For example, without Congress’ approval,
there are not a lot of constitutional powers
that the president can exercise. The
president needs them to: approve treaties,
approve appointments, formally declare war,
pass bills, allocate funds, and more.

11. Argument # 2: Powers are not separated, but shared.
The president is part of the legislative process.
The American system is one of shared, not
separated powers. The president is only one
of several masters of the bureaucracy, and
even the White House staff have independent
sources of power. People in positions of
power cannot do much without persuading
others to help them, and this applies even to
the president. However, more people need
favors from the president than from any other
person. This gives the president bargaining
power.

12. Therefore, the president must use
Persuasion

13. The Art of Persuasion
As far as persuading politicians goes, Nuestadt said that
it takes more than charm and logic to convince them.
The president must assure them that it is in their best
interest to support his policies or desires—by helping
him, they would be helping themselves. Neustadt
explains how the bargaining tactic can influence others.
If he does this well enough, he can create long-standing
relationships, called vantage points, that will help him in
the future by gaining a reputation or confronting
controversial policies which depends on a President’s
charm. In fact, by sharing this authority over a long
stretch of time, both extend their influence,
A good example is the relationship between Republican
President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the
House Tip O’ Neill in Reagan’s 2nd term in the late 1980s.

14. •If two different vantage points diverge, the president
must choose which one to side with: the one will be
more useful to him in the future.

15. Which brings us to our next point…

16. Foresight

17. Argument # 3: A president must be capable of exercising foresight or
predicting how his political allies and opponents in Congress will
behave so he can accomplish his policy goals and enhance his
professional reputation.
In addition, a president must be careful and not misread an election
by becoming too overzealous and ambitious. If they overstep their
“mandate” to pursue an agenda not favored by the American
people, this can cost them seats in Congress at election time and
not only harm their public prestige, but also their professional
reputation. Most presidents aren’t psychic and don’t have a ‘crystal
ball’ so this one can be tough.

18. • "I like him personally. I mean, we've been friends for a long time. He's
a first-rate person," McConnell told reporters in Kentucky,
"Nevertheless, this is a bold, left-wing administration. I don't think
they have a mandate to do what they're doing.“
• Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaking to reporters about Democrat
President Joe Biden’s policy goals on April 5, 2021.

19. • "I earned capital in this
campaign, political capital, and
now I intend to spend it; It is
my style.“
• "When you win, there is ... a
feeling that the people have
spoken and embraced your
point of view. And that's what
I intend to tell Congress, that I
made it clear what I intend to
do as the president; now let's
work.“
-Republican President George W.
Bush to reporters after his 2004 re-
election victory.

20. The president also needs to earn a

21. Professional Reputation

22. -The president’s professional reputation involves how others expect him to react. That means how the
people in Washington (politicians, military officers, ambassadors, etc.) view him. His policies face much
scrutiny, so he must rely on the expertise of his staff.
-Isolated failures are not a problem, but if the failures form a pattern, this will weaken him. In addition to
anticipating what the president wants, others also have to assess how hard he will try to get it. Tenacity is
important. If a president cannot convince others that he will inevitably win, at least he needs to convince
them that it will be costly to cross him.
-“Is this a President we can pretty much ignore without suffering bad consequences, or is this a President we
should not cross?”
- A President cannot punish everyone around him, but does need to selectively punish political enemies and
reward allies.
-Thus the President’s day to day actions should in large part be devoted to developing the right kind of
reputation, e.g.,
-for knowing what’s going on, for tenacity, determination, and decisiveness.
-So day-to-day issues can’t be decided entirely on their “merits.”

24. A president also needs

25. Public Prestige
(how the American people view him)

26. -Argument # 4: Public prestige deals with the president’s popular support outside
Washington [With reputation, people anticipate the reactions of the president;
with prestige, they anticipate the reactions of the voters.) Most politicians and
bureaucrats do not watch poll numbers directly; they watch Congress
-Congressmembers reflect the wishes of their constituencies, so it is key that he
sway the general public through speeches.
-The president must safeguard his power personally. No one else sees politics from
the same vantage point, and so no one else can do this for him. Everyone else has
the institutional pulls of their position tinting their judgment. “Yet nobody and
nothing helps a President to see, save as he helps himself.”
-Do you think a president’s power to persuade relies more on a good relationship
with Congress or on a good relationship with the American people?

28. Determinants of Presidential Power
• Second, the President’s public prestige, as
evaluated by other political actors:
• Presidential “popularity”
• but not necessarily as measured by polls, but rather
• as perceived by other political actors, and
• perceived as support for policies, not just likeability.

29. Finally a president needs to exercise….

30. Skepticism of Government
(but also be capable of managing it correctly)

31. Argument # 5: The president must find the right balance in how much faith
he has in his advisers. Placing too much trust in advisers without making
decisions on his own could result in policy that fails to reflect the
president’s beliefs and a great burden being placed on the advisers.
Neustadt believes that presidents should be skeptical of the government.
The skepticism will bring out the defects of our government and allow
America to know what areas we need to improve. For example, Reagan
had too much trust in his advisers which resulted in in the Iran-Contra
Scandal in his second term of office. Clinton relied too much on his
advisers who focused on making decisions based on the polls in his first
term causing him to lose the House of Representatives and Senate to
Republican control. The American people viewed him as someone who was
unable to make a decision and exercise leadership. He also faced an
impeachment hearing for the Lewinsky Scandal in his second term. A
president should also set a tone that bad behavior that is unacceptable and
will not be tolerated.

32. “Looking Toward Tomorrow from Today”
• Neustadt believes that one of the most critical presidential success factors is for a
president to always be looking and planning for tomorrow. In modern times, the
President and Congress share powers fully in dealing with foreign and domestic
policy. Presidents now are also having to focus more on economic and
environmental issues than the presidents of the past. During the mid century,
Congress delegated more power to deal with other nations such as in World War II
and the Cold War. However, following the Watergate Scandal and the Vietnam War
Congress tried to restrict this power.
• Presidents now have less of a reason to look to foreign policy to escape their
frustrations from domestic policy. For presidents, dealing with other countries used
to seem intriguing and easier than dealing with domestic affairs. However, times are
changing and telecommunications, especially social media, the modernization of the
world, globalization of stock markets, and climate change make dealing with foreign
affairs much more difficult. Presidents are less eager to turn towards foreign policy
as a safety net for fear of “wag the dog” accusations.
• Would you agree with Neustadt that the President and Congress currently
share equal power in dealing with foreign policy? Domestic policy?

33. Presidential Resources for Power
• A unitary office with some powers [the President] may be able
to outmaneuver a plural institution with greater powers
[Congress], which is moreover divided into rival houses and
rival parties.
• The “institutional presidency”:
• Executive Office of the President
• Office of Management and Budget
• Budget and Accounting Act (1921)
• central clearance (1939)
• White House Office
• “The bully pulpit” and the development of mass media:
• Samuel Kernell, Going Public
• evolution of
• the State of the Union message, and
• presidential press conferences.

34. Recent presidents according to the Neustadt
model:

47. Neustadt’s best fit example for his theory
of presidential power…

48. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)

50. Excerpt from his book
Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents
• “In the United States we like to ‘rate’ a president. We measure
him as ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ and call what we are measuring his
‘leadership.’ We do not wait until a man is dead; we rate him
from the moment he takes office. We are quite right to do so.
His office has become the focal point of politics and policy in
our political system. Our commentators and our politicians
make a speciality of taking the man’s measurements. The rest of
us join in when we feel ‘government’ impinging on our private
lives. In the third quarter of the twentieth century millions of us
have that feeling often.
• . . . Although we all make judgments about presidential
leadership, we often base our judgments upon images of office
that are far removed from the reality. We also use those images
when we tell one another whom to choose as president. But it
is risky to appraise a man in office or to choose a man for office
on false premises about the nature of his job. When the job is
the presidency of the United States the risk becomes excessive .
. .”