Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (p.68-75).

This thesis discusses the political climate surrounding the presidential election campaign of 1896.

This study focused on 24 female and male respondents. The literature on presidential partners was lacking. The literature available was over 20 years out of date, had been conducted by university presidential partners on behalf of national presidential associations, and assumed that the presidential partner was female, White, educated, and upper-class. Contemporary information was limited to trade magazines and newspaper articles. The methodology used was Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) naturalistic inquiry paradigm and the framework was role theory according to Biddle and Thomas (1966). The study explored the participant’s experience in responding to the university’s traditional role expectations and taking into account the intersecting factors of gender, ethnicity, social class, and/or sexual orientation and showed how these factors affected their personal and university work. African Americans, Latinas, Asian Americans, Whites, interracial partnerships, and a same sex partnership were part of the study. The study was significant because it was the first study on presidential partners in over 20 years, the first qualitative research study, and conducted by a non-presidential partner. In addition, the respondent pool was diverse in ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Significant findings included episodes of racism in the form of death threats and anonymous hate mail; and, discrimination based on the presidential partner’s gender, culture, religion, social class and/or sexual orientation. The university’s patriarchal role expectations continued to exploit and marginalize the female presidential partner and, to a smaller degree, the male presidential partner. Four primary role expectations were identified that impacted both female and male presidential partners. Findings showed that some of the presidential partners continued to work on their career and their partner’s career simultaneously. As a result of the university’s patriarchal expectations and the lack of organizational support and recognition of the presidential partner, the female presidential partner stated that their career was essential for financial security. Numerous recommendations for practice and further research were reported. These findings will contribute to the research fields in higher education administration, organizational structures, social constructivism, sociology, woman studies, male studies, GLBT issues, mental health, marriage and family, psychology and other fields of knowledge.

This study focused on 24 female and male respondents. The literature on presidential partners was lacking. The literature available was over 20 years out of date, had been conducted by university presidential partners on behalf of national presidential associations, and assumed that the presidential partner was female, White, educated, and upper-class. Contemporary information was limited to trade magazines and newspaper articles. The methodology used was Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) naturalistic inquiry paradigm and the framework was role theory according to Biddle and Thomas (1966). The study explored the participant’s experience in responding to the university’s traditional role expectations and taking into account the intersecting factors of gender, ethnicity, social class, and/or sexual orientation and showed how these factors affected their personal and university work. African Americans, Latinas, Asian Americans, Whites, interracial partnerships, and a same sex partnership were part of the study. The study was significant because it was the first study on presidential partners in over 20 years, the first qualitative research study, and conducted by a non-presidential partner. In addition, the respondent pool was diverse in ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Significant findings included episodes of racism in the form of death threats and anonymous hate mail; and, discrimination based on the presidential partner’s gender, culture, religion, social class and/or sexual orientation. The university’s patriarchal role expectations continued to exploit and marginalize the female presidential partner and, to a smaller degree, the male presidential partner. Four primary role expectations were identified that impacted both female and male presidential partners. Findings showed that some of the presidential partners continued to work on their career and their partner’s career simultaneously. As a result of the university’s patriarchal expectations and the lack of organizational support and recognition of the presidential partner, the female presidential partner stated that their career was essential for financial security. Numerous recommendations for practice and further research were reported. These findings will contribute to the research fields in higher education administration, organizational structures, social constructivism, sociology, woman studies, male studies, GLBT issues, mental health, marriage and family, psychology and other fields of knowledge.

This thesis presents Franklin Delano Roosevelt's use of persuasive means and influence of American public opinion during the pre-World War II crisis years 1940-41.

This study examines the Presidential Library System, an agency within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as an example of a policy subsystem. A policy subsystem may be defined as an informal political coalition of individuals from different parts of a formal policy structure who cooperate to influence policy-making. Actors in a policy subsystem are multifarious, they span both public and private sectors at various levels of government, and may include agency personnel, congressional committee members, interest group participants, citizens of localities affected by the subsystem, and others. A policy subsystem's strength lies in its ability to draw upon bureaucratic expertise, legislative leverage, and interest-group capacities to communicate with the government about the area of public policy it is vitally concerned with. Despite the 60 year existence of the Presidential Library System, its nationwide geographic distribution, and its approximately $30 million/year allocation from the federal budget, it is not widely recognized as a policy system and it has not been the subject of a detailed, scholarly description. The Presidential Libraries policy subsystem is described by tracing its development and mapping the richness of the administrative and political processes which support its continuing viability. The specific research questions addressed are:1) how do the administrative and political processes of this policy subsystem unfold, 2) how do these processes provide system maintenance, and 3) who are the players? Qualitative research techniques, via a case study methodology, were used to address these questions.. In-depth interviews were conducted with the directors of the ten Presidential Libraries, the staff of the Office of Presidential Libraries at NARA, and key stakeholders in the system. Questions addressed included: what do all of the presidential libraries share?, what is unique about each?, to what extent IS the Presidential Library System a policy subsystem?, and how is government organized to deal with presidential libraries and their mission of 1) preserving and providing researchers access to presidential papers and historical materials, and 2) providing museums and educational programming designed to give the general public a better understanding of the individual Presidents, the institution of the Presidency, and the American political system as a whole? / Ph. D.

No / The first round of Uruguay's presidential election on 31 October 1999 produced an unprecedented result. Tabaré Vázquez, candidate of the centre¿left coalition Encuentro Progresista¿Frente Amplio (EP¿FA), won a plurality of votes, but fell short of outright victory. Therefore, for the first time in a Uruguayan presidential contest, a second round was held, on 28 November 1999. This returned a no-change verdict, with the presidency remaining in the hands of the Partido Colorado (PC). Finally successful in his fifth attempt to become President, Jorge Batlle led a centre¿right coalition to victory over Vázquez, by 54.1% to 45.9%. The elections were also characterised by a very high turnout: 91.8% of the electorate went to the polls. The success of EP¿FA in the first round led to frantic negotiations between traditional rivals on the right, the PC and the Partido Nacional (PN).1 The dealing and discussion continued right up to the date of the second round; finally the coalition was able to block Vázquez's path to the presidency. Despite their ultimate defeat, these were the best results for the centre¿left since 1971. The EP¿FA won 40 out of 99 seats in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. However, although the centre¿left Nuevo Espacio (NE) won four seats and could arrive at an understanding with EP¿FA, the right still controls the lower house with 33 PC and 22 PN deputies. The distribution of Senate seats is similar: the EP¿FA is the largest party, with 12 seats, but can be outvoted if the PC (10 seats) and PN (7 seats) combine. The NE won the single remaining seat of the 30-member Senate.

This was the first comprehensive doctoral dissertation on the George Bush Presidential Library Center at Texas A&M University. The Bush Presidential Library and Museum was the focal point. The purpose was to describe the global significance, work and educational contributions of the Bush Presidential Library while exploring its partnership with Texas A&M University. The primary data sources were: archival records, museum exhibits, interviews and my field work experiences. Beyond being a descriptive dissertation, this study offered unique hypotheses and conclusions. It examined the higher educational aspects of the Bush Presidential Library Center's operating context within Texas A&M University. These included the educational value of George Bush's career, the Bush Presidential Library's contents, and its benefits and technology use in educational programming. This study answered two unique hypotheses: how President Bush's liberation of Kuwait increased the Middle Eastern funding of presidential libraries and the Corps of Cadets' influence on President Bush's selection of Texas A&M University. George Bush's global presidency, distinguished international public service career and his world-changing, historical presidential achievements gave the Bush Presidential Library and Museum an extraordinary educational value. The data showed the educational value of, benefits of and technology's role in educational programming at the Bush Presidential Library and Museum. The global changes mirrored President Bush's career and his effort to combat terrorism. China's emergence as a world power was attributed to President Bush's career. The Bush Presidential Library and Museum is the core asset of the center. The data showed President Bush's liberation of Kuwait directly influenced the funding of his presidential library and the subsequent ones. The data showed the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets' influence on President Bush's selection of Texas A&M University as the site for his presidential library. Texas A&M University is the best place for the George Bush Presidential Library Center. A university environment is the best place to host a presidential library.

Serving as the national soothsayer for citizens and political elites alike, the President of the United States looks to and predicts the future. When presidents try to gain influence today, they predict tomorrow. Expectations, or future-oriented statements made by the president, are a prominent attribute of presidential communication. This dissertation engages “future talk” by examining how presidents construct expectation frames as well as how the public reacts to presidential discussions about the future. I answer two main questions in this research. First, how often and under what circumstances do presidents construct expectations? Second, how do expectations affect the citizens who encounter them? I employed a multi-methodological approach to analyze the content and effects of expectation frames. First, I content analyzed a sample of State of the Union addresses and signing statements from the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, as well as a sample of tweets from the White House Twitter feed in the Obama administration. The analytic approach captured patterns of expectation emphasis and de-emphasis within a communication as well as accounted for variation across presidential communications due to external political and communicative factors. Second, I conducted a between-subjects experiment to test the effects of expectation frames on individuals. I examined how the type of expectation frame influences perceptions about the future and the president. This research uncovers that presidents strategically construct expectations and can influence how individuals think about the future. Presidents engage in deliberate actions to target the settings where expectations are framed, the agents responsible for the future, and the policies associated with tomorrow. In turn, citizens attend to how presidents frame the future and are influenced as a result of encountering future frames. The results of this dissertation illuminate critical facets of presidential communicative leadership of public opinion as well as elite influence within government. The president’s prominence in American life should force our attention to how the chief executive divines and shapes the future for citizens and intergovernmental agents. / text

The responsiveness of government to citizens is the central concern in normative democratic theory. Referendum is one of the means to accomplish this ideal. There have been, on the part of the referendum , accumulated experiences and fruitful results in the Western advanced democratic countries. Since 1990, nineteen local plebiscites have been held in Taiwan. The passing of the referendum law is an important milestone of Taiwan¡¦s democratic deepening. However, judging from the continued controversy on the referendum. Especially, referendum is the the settlement of dispute between exective and legislative . I attempt to find some theory from referendum and solve the settlement of dispute between exective and legislative.