The President and His Inner Circle

The Moral Costs of Discretionary Decision-Making in Crisis

“…It is known that people under stress tend to cling to their initial perceptions and choices, finding it hard to reconsider them even in the light of new evidence ('t Hart 1994;Preston 2000;Schafer and Crichlow 2010). What this case shows is that individuals can get stuck in the proverbial tunnel even when ethical repercussions (should) come into full view.…”

Using Words as Data in the Study of the French Political Elite

“…When relationship focused: Attention is on persuading others to join in one's mission, in mobilizing others around one's message (Hermann, 1999, 9) Navigator-Director leadership style: High interest in policy; high need for information; seeks advice from relevant outside actors; hierarchical advisory structure; tendency to advocate own policy views (Preston, 2001) a We illustrate linkages to executive operations only for de Gaulle/1960s and Chirac personal interviews due to the unsuitability of the other data files for this approach: de Gaulle obviously had no conventional executive to lead in world war two, and the Chirac/Iraq scores are perhaps too topic specific to provide an accurate measure of propensities as head of an executive. For the purposes of his analytical scheme, Preston utilizes the variables in a dichotomous manner, wherein a score below the mean ¼ low; and above the mean ¼ high.…”

“…The pattern of differences in recovered characteristics across time periods and contexts suggests one initial test of external validity: one would expect shifts in characteristics given the different situations faced by these leaders, and the direction of the shifts is a direction that seems intuitively correct. More rigorous tests would involve the linkage of foreign policy styles to events data sets (Hermann, 1980); the linkage of executive operations variables to archival research of decision-making (Preston, 2001); and the linkage of party leadership variables to evidence of party change. Will decentralize, or refrain from centralizing power within the political party Will generate conflict over any attempt at party change, and will not move party towards trends in the ideological environment (Appleton et al, 2003).…”

Reluctant Customers: Presidents and Policy Advice

“…Kowert builds upon the pioneering work of Irving Janis (1972), Alexander George (1980), and Margaret Hermann (1980). He also fits into a stream of recent, highly related political‐psychological studies of leader–adviser interaction in US foreign policymaking by such young scholars as Patrick Haney (1997), Thomas Preston (2000), and David Houghton (2001).…”