Toward a Representational Framework for Presidency Studies

In recent years, there have been numerous scholars who have taken the values and needs of democracy under consideration. Indeed, in political theory circles, the problems of democracy and self-governance stand today as central concerns. Some have written to rediscover the foundations of democratic theory, while others have taken up the tasks of proposing fundamental reforms of the American system of representative government designed to facilitate more popular participation. Presidency studies have also undergone a renaissance in recent years. More scholarly attention than ever before has been focused on the American chief executive as that office has made its own move to the center of American politics over the past century. Nearly every aspect of the executive institution has been placed under the political scientist's microscope--dissected, interpreted, evaluated, and made the subject of prescription. We know more than ever before about such important topics as presidential elections, the institutionalization of the modern staff system, presidential rhetoric and the symbolic aspects of the office, and the office's prerogative powers. Yet, despite all the literature produced on the presidency, we are still missing a coherent vision of the office that brings the literature together and accounts for presidential activity and political symbolism in a democratic polity. The primary flaw in presidency studies today is not a lack of methods, approach, or "rigor," as was the standard criticism of the field in the past. Rather, the major gap in the current field is that the volumes of literature produced have been so fragmented and compartmentalized. This is perhaps the natural and possibly inevitable consequence of the scientific process and progress in the field. As scholars have tended to delve deeper into their areas of research, be they presidential personality, rhetoric, staff systems, or the like, we have sometimes lost touch with what in a democratic regime must be of paramount importance--the republican character of the office and its affect on self-government. In the American system of representative government, the president stands in a unique position as the only nationally elected political figure. As such, to make an account of democratic politics in America necessitates a serious concern with the presidency. Likewise, a full accounting of the American presidency necessitates a concern with its representational functions--its democratic character. What is needed is for presidential scholars to take up the renewed concern with democratic political theory that has been exhibited in recent years by political philosophers and theorists. What I wish to argue is that by studying the presidency through the lens provided by the concept of representation, we will be able to give a better accounting of the office's place in the American Republic as well as provide a unifying framework for presidency studies. Neither of these laudable goals, it is my contention, have been completely met by the existing literature. By taking the normative and empirical theories of representation that have been developed and applied traditionally to legislatures and their members and applying them to the office of the American presidency, we are offered not only the basis for a democratic standard for presidential evaluations but also afforded the unifying theme that can unite a disparate field. Indeed, this approach accords with an important if often neglected assumption about the presidency itself--that it is consummately an office of political representation. Although it has to date been taken up for serious scholarly consideration only in the most preliminary manner, there has been an underlying assumption in the political science literature that presidents provide representational functions, and presidents themselves have certainly asserted this role for the office.(1) In the nineteenth century, Andrew Jackson convulsed his congressional Whig opponents by asserting that "The President is the direct representative of the American people" and is" elected by the people and responsible to them. …