Executive-Legislative Relations: When Do Legislators Trust the President?

Araya, Ignacio Arana; Valencia, Carolina Guerrero

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51584-3_7

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Preceding research on the expansion of presidential powers has overlooked a well‐established tradition that has used a variety of at‐a‐distance methods to examine the consequences of the personality traits of presidents on executive governance. These works have focused on different traits of the leaders, such as their Big Five personality traits (Rubenzer & Faschingbauer, 2004; [Arana Araya, 2021a; Arana Araya and Guerrero Valencia, 2020]), their power, achievement, and affiliation motives (Winter, 2002), their leadership characteristics (Hermann, 2003), and their intellectual brilliance (Simonton, 1986).…”

Section: What Explains the Expansion Of Presidential Powers?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Quest for Uncontested Power: Presidents' Personalities and Democratic Erosion in Latin America, 1945–2012

Araya

2021

Political Psychology

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There is a growing scholarly consensus that overreaching heads of government are subverting democracies across the globe. However, the characteristics of these leaders remain unclear. This article examines a type of overreaching presidential behavior that has been commonplace in Latin America: between 1945 and 2012, 25 presidents from 14 countries tried to change their respective constitutions to increase their powers. Building on personality research and semistructured interviews conducted with former presidents, this article proposes that risk taking and assertive leaders are more likely to try to increase their powers. Using a novel database, I conduct discrete-time-duration models to test the hypotheses on the presidents that governed from 1945 to 2012. The results demonstrate that the personalities of presidents are a strong force behind their attempts to consolidate their authority. These findings challenge current approaches in presidential studies and have implications for the study of all types of political elites.

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Section: What Explains the Expansion Of Presidential Powers?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Quest for Uncontested Power: Presidents' Personalities and Democratic Erosion in Latin America, 1945–2012

Araya

2021

Political Psychology

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“…American and Latin American presidential studies can be divided in two dominant approaches. President‐centered researchers consider the attributes of leaders essential to understanding policy outcomes and decision‐making in the executive branch (Arana Araya, 2016a, 2016b; Arana Araya & Guerrero Valencia, 2020; Barber, 1972; Corwin, 1940; Cronin & Greenberg, 1969; Greenstein, 2009; Hermann, 2003; Koenig, 1964; Neustadt, 1960; Renshon, 2008; Walker, 1990). In contrast, presidency‐oriented scholars minimize the importance of presidents as individuals and rather focus on the institutional setting in which they work (Heclo, 1977; King, 1975, 1993; Lowi, 1986; Moe, 1993; Wayne, 1983).…”

Section: The Evolution In Presidential Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Personalities of Presidents as Independent Variables

Araya

2020

Political Psychology

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The debate about the relative importance of the personality traits of presidents has a long history. Until the mid-1970s, scholars of the presidency extensively focused on the uniqueness of the individuals that held office. However, the difficulty in capturing presidential personalities and measuring their impact on executive politics led to a significant quantitative shift that focused more on the institutions within which presidents operate. This change produced a long-lasting divide between researchers interested in the "institutional" presidency and those focused on the "personal" presidency. I propose to integrate both approaches by incorporating insights from differential psychology to treat the personality traits of presidents as independent variables. In support of the argument, I use data from an expert survey that captured psychometric traits of presidents who governed the Western Hemisphere in 1945-2012 to reassess an influential study about Latin American presidents. The results show that adding openness to experience leads to a deeper understanding of presidential approval. I conclude by arguing that measuring the personality traits of all sorts of leaders is necessary to modernize the study of elites.

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The “Big Five” personality traits of presidents and the relaxation of term limits in Latin America

Araya

2021

Democratization

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Executive-Legislative Relations: When Do Legislators Trust the President?

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

The Quest for Uncontested Power: Presidents' Personalities and Democratic Erosion in Latin America, 1945–2012

The Quest for Uncontested Power: Presidents' Personalities and Democratic Erosion in Latin America, 1945–2012

The Personalities of Presidents as Independent Variables

The “Big Five” personality traits of presidents and the relaxation of term limits in Latin America

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