scholarly journals Intellectual Brilliance and Presidential Performance: Why Pure Intelligence (or Openness) Doesn’t Suffice

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Simonton
2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-263
Author(s):  
Bruce Buchanan

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 514-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARTHUR M. SIMON ◽  
JOSEPH E. USCINSKI

Author(s):  
Stephen Skowronek ◽  
John A. Dearborn ◽  
Desmond King

This chapter examines the theory of the unitary executive and its deployment in the Trump presidency afgainst the specter of a Deep State. The theory asserts that the president possesses all the executive power, that the incumbent alone is the executive branch. The idea is that anything less than complete control over administration by that individual risks an obfuscation of responsibility, clouding the judgments on presidential performance that “the people” get to deliver retrospectively in the next election. This reading of the Constitution is often joined to a strikingly plebiscitary conception of American democracy. This chapter takes up two issues of special interest. The first is an alternative “republican reading” of the Constitution which anticipates inter-branch collaboration in the control of administrative power. The second is the relationship between the vesting clause of Article II, on which the unitary theory is based, and the selection procedure, which has changed radically since its original constitutional formulation. The chapter concludes by pointing to the distortions of constitutional meaning introduced by joining an expansive reading of the vesting clause to contemporary selection mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Dirksen

Though dismissed as jest at the time, in the mid-1990s Sweet Micky declared himself the “President of Konpa” and composed lyrics that avowed his seriousness for the job. Martelly’s play-acts at “presidential” performance suggest that he methodically crafted a political product inherently entangled with his musical product. Fundamental to Martelly’s stage persona are betiz, which encompass obscenities, off-color jokes, and sexual innuendo and which are considered typical carnivalesque behavior. Demonstrating that this staged vulgarity is nothing new, this chapter considers the long history of betiz as documented back to the colonial era. Such expressions have been key to the discursive practices of madigra bands of the 1930s, Coupé Cloué’s konpa hits of the 1960s–1980s, the rara bands of today, and even the Vodou lwa (spirit) Gede. This chapter reveals the deeper work of betiz, in navigating structures of power and oppression while establishing conditions for physical release and psychological healing.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (04) ◽  
pp. 596-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Zachary Taylor

AbstractHow relatively good or bad were the economic performances of our past presidents? The answers to this question remain unclear. Most evaluations of presidential performance cloud the issue with partisan bias and subjective judgments or mix economics together with other policy areas. To address these shortcomings, this article uses new data from the Measuring Worth Project to calculate the relative economic rankings of the United States presidents who served from 1789 until 2009. It analyzes up to 220 years of data on economic growth, unemployment, inflation, government debt, balance of payments, income inequality, currency strength, interest rates, and stock market returns to estimate an economic grade point average for each president. Then, these estimates are used to test for correlations with other variables to generate hypotheses regarding the conditions for superior and inferior economic performance.


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