Presidential Rhetoric and Power in a Historical Perspective

Abstract

This article explores some of the developments of rhetorical leadership over the past century, focusing particularly on the modern presidency, commonly understood as beginning with
Franklin D. Roosevelt. The first research question is whether Richard Neustadt’s (1960) seminal book Presidential Power is still valid as a thesis of presidential power in light of the concept of the rhetorical presidency, which became a dominant approach to presidential studies in the 1980s. Although the strategy of “going public” is used increasingly in presidential leadership, the conclusion of this article is that Neustadt’s bargaining theory, or the strategy of “going Washington”, is still valid when it comes to the relationship between the president and Congress, provided popular rhetoric is integrated into a bargaining perspective. The second research question is how the State of the Union Addresses have changed during the course of the modern presidency. This includes an analysis of selected State of the Union Addresses between 1934 and 2020. On the basis of some linguistic features and rhetorical techniques (the use of pronouns, the opening address and the acknowledgment of invited guests) they are considered to illustrate the change of presidential rhetoric into what may seem like a permanent campaign.