Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

James D. Barber: "The Presidential Character": An Attempt Of Applicability, Renate Irene Ahlers

Masters Theses

In 1972 James Barger published his book The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House. In this book Barber tries to typify the American Presidents, beginning with William H. Taft, according to four psycho-political categories: active-positive, active-negative, passive-positive, and passive-negative. The most important part of Barber's thesis is that the future performance of any presidential candidate can be predicted by looking at the factors that place him into a certain category. These factors are his character, his world view and style, the power situation, and the climate of expectations. Character, world view, and style are clearly formed well …