Examining the Skowronek thesis: Political time, presidential warrants, and explicit enemy rhetoric in 20th century us presidential inaugural addresses

The purpose of this study was to examine a particular leadership theory, proposed by Stephen Skowronek, on the United States (US) presidency concerning democratic leadership and the importance of obtaining warrants for action from the American electorate. This study investigated the use of explicit enemy rhetoric in 20th century US presidential inaugurals, with enemy rhetoric defined as the designation and recognition of enemies intended to evoke followership. The study examined the use of enemy rhetoric based upon the variables of political identity and regime commitment as well as the political authority designations of reconstructive, articulated, preemptive, and disjunctive popularized by the Skowronek Model of American presidential leadership.;A quantitative content analysis methodology was utilized to quantify and categorize enemy rhetoric contained within the inaugural addresses of 20th century American presidents. The study design involved the creation and use of a customized enemy reference dictionary. Inferential statistical tests were applied to the data extracted to evaluate the relationship between explicit enemy rhetoric use and the various components of the Skowronek Model.;Explicit enemy rhetoric was consistently observed in the inaugural addresses of 20th century US presidents. The analysis offered tentative support for Skowronek's pluralist and plebiscitary secular time distinctions and how they impacted the gathering of leadership warrants. Statistically significant differences were not obtained when comparing Skowronek's political identity distinctions, regime commitment differences, or political authority designations in terms of such warrants. A statistically significant difference was, however, obtained when the transition from one president to another involved a change of political party, a circumstantial subset that includes the preemptive to reconstructive leadership shift. Trends over time were also identified and discussed. This study, based on an analysis enemy rhetoric, did not find that the Skowronek Model of American presidential leadership efficaciously explained the use of enemy rhetoric in the inaugural addresses of 20th century US presidents as a means to amass leadership warrants.