Article
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
The Legitimacy of Inexperience: Leadership from Outside
-
Charles O. Jones
Published/Copyright:
April 9, 2009
Experience in politics and administration is typically thought of as legitimizing leadership. However, what if those with experience are judged to be poor performers in the premier leadership post in American politics—the presidency? History provides a number of such cases—indeed, nearly a quarter of the presidents can be so designated. This article identifies these instances and the successions to those presidents with little or no national-level political or executive experience. The conclusion: greater legitimacy is accorded to inexperience, with all of its accompanying risks. The cases are comparatively analyzed and lessons identified for the forty-fourth president—Barack Obama.
Published Online: 2009-4-9
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- The Obama Administration: Setting Up a Government
- Article
- Presidential Voting and the Local Variability of Economic Hardship
- The Legitimacy of Inexperience: Leadership from Outside
- Cautionary Tales from the Clinton Administration: First Year Lessons the New Democratic President Can Learn from the Last One
- Mandates, Honeymoons, and the Obama Administration
- Who Gets What Now? Interest Groups under Obama
- The Leadership Style of Barack Obama: An Early Assessment
- Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Future of the "New American Party System"
- Obama's Ethics Agenda: The Challenge of Coordinated Change
- Obama and the Federal Judiciary: Great Expectations but Will He Have a Dickens of a Time Living up to Them?
- Understanding the Obama Presidency
- Turning the Tables: Individual Contributions, Member Contributions, and the Changing Campaign Finance Environment
- Review
- Review of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do
- Review of Congressional Travels: Places, Connections, and Authenticity
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- The Obama Administration: Setting Up a Government
- Article
- Presidential Voting and the Local Variability of Economic Hardship
- The Legitimacy of Inexperience: Leadership from Outside
- Cautionary Tales from the Clinton Administration: First Year Lessons the New Democratic President Can Learn from the Last One
- Mandates, Honeymoons, and the Obama Administration
- Who Gets What Now? Interest Groups under Obama
- The Leadership Style of Barack Obama: An Early Assessment
- Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Future of the "New American Party System"
- Obama's Ethics Agenda: The Challenge of Coordinated Change
- Obama and the Federal Judiciary: Great Expectations but Will He Have a Dickens of a Time Living up to Them?
- Understanding the Obama Presidency
- Turning the Tables: Individual Contributions, Member Contributions, and the Changing Campaign Finance Environment
- Review
- Review of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do
- Review of Congressional Travels: Places, Connections, and Authenticity
