"All the World's a Stage": Presidential Performance in Unilateralism

• In Event: Unilateral Power and the Public Presidency

Abstract

Much of presidential communication is performative in nature. Since the advent of television, presidents have been confronted with the need to manage, stage, and “perform” when communicating with the public. As presidents increasingly confront an environment that encourages executive unilateralism, presidents may at least partially satisfy these demands by issuing unilateral executive actions. Executive orders, memoranda, and proclamations allow presidents to demonstrate action and publicly signing these documents encourages the advertising of that unilateralism. These actions are an additional opportunity for presidents to “perform” and demonstrate that they are solving problems and addressing promises, whether the action is truly substantive or not. In particular, we are interested in whether presidential behavior advertising unilateral actions has evolved over time. Have presidents’ actions become more performative in nature? Do we see more advertising over time, or are there individual differences among presidents? As presidents “stage” their policy action, do they stress unilateralism, or do they downplay the unilateral nature of their actions? We examine the settings, audiences, and remarks presidents make when executing unilateral actions using the Compilation of Presidential Documents from Reagan to Biden to better understand how these presidents have used these opportunities to communicate with the public about policy accomplishments. These events are an additional rhetorical and performative opportunity for presidents to “manage” how the public perceives their ability to lead.

Authors

• Donna R. Hoffman, University of Northern Iowa

• Alison Howard, Dominican University of California