This thesis observes and critiques leadership and crisis management by seven of the presidents of the United States, starting in the mid 20th century and ending right before our current president’s term. The paper analyzes presidential policies and decision-making, and assesses (grades) their overall performance on how they managed crises. The paper will look at the historical aspects of each crisis and view them through the governmental lens the presidency, and then apply leadership concepts to each president for a final analysis.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Petrus Ramus was one of the most influential philosophers of the 1500s. His attempted reform of pedagogy, which was exemplified in his dialectic and rhetoric, not only changed the way people generations after taught and thought, but also demonstrated the scholastic reforms occurring in his lifetime. Ramus' influence is evident through the amount of controversy it sparked, the amount of scholarship devoted to Ramus, and, most importantly, the spread of Ramism from Europe to New England, finding its home in the New England Puritans. Through the passing of time, Puritan notions have not entirely been subsumed and have recently reappeared in American political discourse. American Exceptionalism, traceable to the Puritans, has emerged in the words of conservative American politicians such as Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Sarah Palin. Has American identity, imbued with Puritan ideas, also been infected with a subtle Ramism? A study of political and theological reactions to 9/11--a reflection of the Puritan "provoking evils" --and political speeches appealing to the fabled "city upon a hill" not only show the continuance of American Exceptionalism but also demonstrate Ramist logic at work. The identification of America as "exceptional," and the support of this idea as provided by the aforementioned reactions and speeches, exhibit a belief in the ontological relationship between signs and exceptionalism. By investigating Ramism, Ramist influence upon the Puritans, and the theology and logic of Jonathan Edwards, along with recent American political discourse, one can still see not only the Puritan traces in recent American identity, but also the Ramist roots twining through it all.

In the calendar year since the election of President Donald J. Trump, there has been a marked intensification of activist demonstrations that have permeated mainstream American culture. Roughly one century after its inception, a group of powerful, semi-underground activists and organizers have resurrected a radical social movement called the Antifa network. Antifa, which is short for anti-fascist, originated in early 20th century Germany, Italy and Spain. The group has now been reborn in response to what Antifa members have identified as a strong and dangerous wave of fascist mentality in American politics. They will not rest until they have succeeded in suppressing and defeating every inkling of fascist sentiment from the American political landscape, regardless of what they must do to accomplish that goal. This thesis examines the intentions, motivations and actions of Antifa by dissecting what they are, who they are, and how they work. I will provide a brief history of the movement in its various recorded forms—both in the United States and Europe. In addition to examining the stated goals and behaviors of the movement, I will assess and evaluate Antifa’s ideology by analyzing several key pieces of writing from their resource archives. Primarily, my goal is to determine the ideological legitimacy of Antifa’s efforts against those they have deemed fascist, and the legitimacy of the claims that it is members of Antifa who are the real perpetrators of fascist action in the United States.

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Presidential approval ratings are a political resource that presidents and their advisors hope to influence through strategic action in order to achieve their policy goals (McAvoy 2008, 284). Through 1999, scholarly literature had largely ignored the president's use of unilateral powers. Since Moe and Howell (1999a, 1999b), however, the literature on the unilateral presidency has expanded rapidly. Despite the rapid growth of literature examining the unilateral presidency, and 45 years of presidential approval ratings literature, literature examining the link between the president's use of unilateral powers and subsequent presidential approval ratings is virtually nonexistent. Existing research has not statistically examined what effect, if any, the president's issuing executive orders has on subsequent job approval ratings. This thesis seeks to address that research gap. By modeling aggregate and individual-level presidential approval ratings, using fixed-effect models, OLS regression, and binary logistic regression, this thesis finds evidence indicating the president's issuing of executive orders has a negative impact on the subsequent presidential job approval ratings that individuals report. If an executive order is salient to the public, presidents receive lower presidential approval ratings from persons of all political parties; however, if the executive order is non-salient then presidents only receive lower presidential approval ratings from members of their own political party. Members of the opposition party report higher presidential approval ratings when the president issued non-salient executive orders. Thus, this thesis concludes that the president's issuing of executive orders has significant effects on subsequent presidential job approval ratings, and future research should be conducted to explore this relationship further.

This dissertation explores how partisan polarization among the political elites (the President and key Members of Congress) impacts national security decision-making. The research examines the relationship over time beginning at the start of the Cold War through 2014. In doing so, the research tests several hypotheses to determine the nature of the relationship and what the implications might be for future U.S. national security policy-making. There are three different approaches used in the research centered on the same theory of partisan polarization. The first approach examines changes in the level of polarization and defense budgets each year. The second explores the impact of partisan polarization on the outcome of key roll-call votes on national security legislation. Lastly, the third approach studies the changes in polarization relative to the Presidents' decision to use force. Poole and Rosenthal (1984) argue that political polarization has increased among the political elite since the 1960s and the Republicans and Democrats continue to move further apart ideologically (Gray et al. 2015). I argue that the combined effect of polarization and a growing ideological divide between the two major political parties puts our collective national security at risk. Using analytical regression time series models and a qualitative analysis, the findings suggests that rising partisan polarization presents a clear and present threat to our national security.

Populism is widely understood to be a masculine style of politics due to its antagonistic and aggressive nature. Populism often centers a “strong leader” who is personable, tough, and willing to fight to protect “the people” from the threats posed by “the elite.” Gender politics literature tells us that people are less likely to see women as strong leaders, and generally want women to engage in a more civil version of politics. Literature on populism also tells us that populist politicians are predominantly male and will also use masculinity as political currency to show dominance over competitors. These facts would suggest that women cannot be successful using the populist style, but female politicians Kari Lake and Marjorie Taylor Greene have built formidable bases using a Trumpian populist style. This thesis intends to explain this apparent paradox by bridging the gap between gender politics literature and populist literature. I argue that female populist politicians make appeals to motherhood and religion in order to legitimize their roles as populist protectors and to connect to conservative feminine identity.

Income inequality in Florida is higher than in many states and has been getting worse over time. Inequality has been argued as responsible for a wide-ranging array of economic and social problems, including suppression of lower- and middle-income growth, social fragmentation and separatism, urban sprawl, poor health and mental illnesses, violence, and shortened life expectancy. What explains variance in Florida county income inequality as measured by the GINI coefficient? Bivariate and multivariate weighted least square regressions are conducted for the years 2000 and 2016, and for the change between 2000 and 2016. Three variables achieve statistical significance in all three multivariate models: poverty rate and population density have a positive effect as does educational attainment (although that variable is negative in the 2000 model). Income per capita has a statistically significant positive relationship with inequality in the 2000 model and in the change model. Unemployment rate is statistically significant in the 2016 model and in the change model but has a positive association with the GINI index in the former and a negative association in the latter. Several variables were statistically significant in just one model: cost-burdened housing with a positive relationship to inequality and percentage of minorities with a negative relationship in 2016; and county tax rate with a positive association with inequality in the change model. Conclusions are drawn regarding policy that might be implemented to mitigate worsening inequality in the Sunshine State.

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