The Restrained Presidency and Presidential Character: The Relationships Between Dr. Ivan Eland's Presidential Rankings and James Barber's Character Types
Date
2012-05
Authors
Jones, Dillon T.
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Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to take a ranking of American presidents with criteria based on restraint on presidential power and compare it to James Barber’s presidential character classifications. Dr. Ivan Eland’s book Recarving Rushmore ranks presidents based on his notion Constitutional originalism, that is, his conception on how presidents should act in terms in the categories of Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty as they relate to how the founding fathers would expect.
Primary tests are done to see if there are any relationships between a president having a high or low ranking on Eland’s list and his Barber presidential character type. After these relationships are found, secondary tests are performed to find other relationships in terms of number of terms elected, time period of the presidency, and Congressional party in power in relationship to the president’s party. From part of these secondary tests, we can infer that there may be other determining factors outside the said criteria of both Eland and Barber that affect their rankings and character classifications of American presidents.
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Keywords
Presidency, Barber, Character, Rankings, Eland, Libertarian, Originalism
Citation
Jones, D. T. (2012). <i>The restrained presidency and presidential character: The relationships between Dr. Ivan Eland's presidential rankings and James Barber's character types</i> (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas.