Perceptions of Presidential Greatness and the Flow of Evaluative Political Information: From the Elite to the Informed to the Masses

In: Politics & policy, Band 31, Heft 3, S. 383-404

Abstract

Since World War II, numerous polls and surveys have been conducted in an attempt to evaluate the performance of past presidents. Their major concern has been to distinguish, in an historical perspective, "great" presidents from those who are "failures." Ratings from the general public, however, rarely attempt to investigate which characteristics of the individuals in the Oval Office weigh in the minds of the evaluators. Researchers seldom investigate how the general public acquires information to make these assessments. We suggest that information is transmitted from an elite through an informed public to the general public through a "two‐step flow." Using data from surveys of historians and the general public conducted by C‐SPAN for its "American Presidents" series, we analyze the flow of information regarding the qualities of presidential leadership among elites, the informed public, and the interested public and suggest that a mediated flow of opinions on presidential greatness from the elite public to the interested public exists. The public at large indirectly acquires elite opinions when making evaluative political judgments, yet it does not acquire the same basis for those judgments.