Deck 16: Appedix: Introduction Thinking Institutionally about an American Presidency

Question 1

An approach to studying executive politics that focuses on the distinctive features of the individuals who hold the office is known as the __________ presidency.

A) political
B) personal
C) ideological
D) institutional

Answer 1

personal

Question 2

Which statement best characterizes the understanding of the presidency by pundits within the last twenty years?

A) It has remained focused on the personal presidency.
B) It has moved decidedly toward the institutional presidency.
C) It no longer discusses institutional aspects of the presidency.
D) It no longer focuses on presidential scandal and partisan bickering.

Answer 2

It has remained focused on the personal presidency.

Question 3

What does the critique of Obama's handling of the debt ceiling crisis by the New York Times illustrate?

A) the shift to an institutional approach to the presidency by the media
B) the inherently political relationship between presidents and the media
C) the continued commitment of pundits to the personal presidency
D) the diminished discussion of partisanship and presidential action

Answer 3

the continued commitment of pundits to the personal presidency

Question 4

How did pundits describe the presidency of George Bush?

A) as personally motivated
B) in existential terms
C) as shaped by political institutions
D) as full of self-doubt

Question 5

What did the selection of George Washington to be the first president illustrate?

A) the focus on the policy preferences of presidents over issues of character
B) the institutional pressures of Congress and the courts on the presidency
C) the non-partisan nature of presidential action during the founding
D) the cult of personality that has surrounded the presidency since its inception

Question 6

If you were an academic using the personal perspective, what would be a likely source of evidence to support your claims about presidential action?

A) an executive order issued by the president
B) a decision by the Supreme Court ruling a presidential action unconstitutional
C) a law by Congress seeking to restrict presidential authority
D) a ten-year-old letter from a president to his mother

Question 7

The starting point for an institutional study of the presidency is the view that presidential power is __________.

A) embedded in and mediated by institutions
B) independent of and solely determined by institutions
C) dependent on and decided by institutions
D) unrelated to and unaffected by institutions

Question 8

The nature of institutions can best be described as __________.

A) ephemeral
B) static
C) permanent
D) malleable

Question 9

Which president said that a president's capacity will set his limits?

A) Ronald Reagan
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt
C) Woodrow Wilson
D) Jimmy Carter

Question 10

If you were an institutionalist, you would think of the president as a(n) __________.

A) important individual actor who makes independent decisions
B) generic actor whose behavior is an institutional product
C) unimportant actor dependent on institutional power
D) minor player in the greater game of executive politics

Question 11

Institutionalists focus on presidential __________.

A) personalities
B) ideologies
C) actions
D) ideas

Question 12

Which statement is an example of how institutions inform executive action?

A) Presidents never engage in unilateral actions to achieve their policy goals.
B) Congressional concerns over reelection may allow a president to exert more power over foreign policy than over domestic policy.
C) Presidential preferences are dominant in all aspects of policymaking.
D) The courts never seek to challenge presidential actions in domestic policy.

Question 13

What are the critiques of using the personal approach to studying the American presidency, and how might the institutional approach be better?

Question 14

Differentiate between how the personal presidency perspective and the institutional presidency perspective have been used by pundits and academics in their study and evaluation of the American presidency.