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The Presidential Ranking Game: Critical Review and Some New Discoveries
Author(s) -
NICHOLS CURT
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.03966.x
Subject(s) - presidential system , ranking (information retrieval) , operationalization , politics , context (archaeology) , positive economics , political science , social psychology , sociology , epistemology , psychology , law , computer science , economics , history , artificial intelligence , philosophy , archaeology
This study provides critical analysis of ranking surveys, leading to regression analysis that provides fresh insight into the factors that structure presidential rating scores. Results demonstrate that rating scores can be predicted with relative ease. Furthermore, new measures are found to be significant—two operationalizing the latest extension of Stephen Skowronek's “political time” thesis and one controlling for cultural level preferences favoring “progressive” presidents. This suggests that expert evaluators take note of presidential performance within context. It also suggests that experts of all political stripes are influenced by the milieu in which their evaluation takes place. In the end, while no claim is made that the popular expert surveys used in this study provide a true measure of presidential greatness, it is argued that ranking polls may tell us more than critics admit.