Personality in Politics: Analyzing George W. Bush Essay

The relationship between personality, reckon, and political decision-making has been established in some(prenominal) studies. This has been undertaken exploitation at a distance techniques which evaluate the relationship using biographies, speeches, and text from interviews. One of the most prominent names that focused on the predictive power of personality on political styles and actions of world leadershiphip has been renowned political scientists Margaret Hermann. Hermann lists six factors that influence the impact of world leaders on outside(prenominal) policy.1) what their world view is 2) what their political style is like 3) what motivates them to take up the position they do 4) whether they are interested in and have training in foreign affairs 5) what the foreign policy climate was like when the leader was starting out his or her political locomote and 6) how the leader was socialized into his or her present position. Essentially, personality, priming coat, and previous experiences shape the foreign policy-making behavior of world leaders.This becomes especially clear when leaders reside a res publicaal crisis. How a leader conducts foreign affairs in the midst of crisis heightens his level of experience on decision-making and resources. It is during this time that the interplay of personality and experience can be evaluated on their impact on the leaders words and actions. Personality is a significant modifier in a leaders foreign policy-making behavior. This was posited by Hermann in her leadership analysis of 51 world leaders. Hermann (2003) defined personality to be a mixture of seven traits.These were 1) picture in ability to control events, 2) conceptual labyrinthianity, 3) need for power, 4) distrust of others, 5) in-group bias, 6) self-confidence, and 7) task orientation. This paper applies this mode of analysis on George W. bush-league, the 43rd President of the united States with an emphasis on his behavior during the f olk 11 Crisis and the Iraq War. scrubbing displayed high belief in his ability to control events, a personality trait related to how an individual perceives his control oer political circumstances and his perception on the influence or meaning of his state in resolving a foreign policy issue. sound judgement on his pronouncements about the righteousness of the Iraq War and the responsibility of the US and its consort to stop Saddam Hussein, render was strong, even arrogant in his belief that the US must wage war, even going against the judgment of the United Nations Security Council, America will never seek a license slip to defend the security of our people. In terms of his conceptual complexity, Bush was more inclined to see foreign affairs in sick and white terms than appreciate it to be the result of a unnumerable of factors.Bush displays a straightforward binary stance on the billet of countries in foreign affairs, most notably the classification that all US action is go od and countries better follow it. In his speech harbinger to the US campaign after September 11, Bush said, Every nation in every region now has a decision to unclutter Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. In analyzing the causes of foreign policy problems, Bush went for the superficial explanation in place of the complex one.In terms of self-confidence, Bush displays high levels of optimism and fervor despite macrocosm placed in tight situations. His well-known Bushisms, for instance, seemed to have not spoil his confidence or his nature. Despite his numerous verbal fiascos such as in addressing families of victims of September 11, They misunderestimated the compassion of our country I talk to families who die, Bush has managed to even make fun of himself. In sum, the foreign policy decisions of George W.Bush were reflective of his personality that is characterized by high belief in ability to control events, low conceptual complexity, and high degree of self -confidence. His personality and background created a foreign policy legacy which became detrimental to his partys bid for the 2010 presidential seat. Bibliography CNN. State of the Union Address, (2004) http//edition. cnn. com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/20/sotu. transcript. 1/index. hypertext mark-up language (accessed whitethorn 8, 2010). CNN. Transcript of President Bushs address. (2001) http//edition. cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/gen. bush. transcript/ (accessed May 8, 2010). Feller, Ben, Analysis Bushs Personality Shapes His Legacy. MSNBC (Jan. 3, 2009), http//www. msnbc. msn. com/id/28482517/ (accessed May 8, 2010). Hermann, Margaret, Explaining Foreign Policy Behavior Using the Personal Characteristics of Political Leaders. planetary Studies Quarterly (1983) 247-46. Hermann, Margaret, Assessing Leadership Style Trait Analysis, in The psychological Assessment of Political Leaders, ed. J. M. Post (Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press, 2003).