The penultimate week of the Political Studies Program examines statesmanship. Statesmanship is distinct from ordinary political leadership. It suggests a certain quality of excellence in leadership, character, and judgment.

The first section will examine the thought and political strategy of two of America’s most consequential presidents – Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan – with a particular emphasis on how national leaders assemble electoral coalitions and then use those after the election to change the country’s trajectory. The second section will consider a range of classic and contemporary authors – from Aristotle to Churchill, Edmund Burke to Václav Havel – to explore the phenomenon of statesmanship as it relates to other political phenomena including virtue, founding, revolution, war, and dissent. Both sections will conclude by considering the statesman’s role in a democracy and whether political greatness is still possible today.

Image: Winston Churchill at the Europa Conference in The Hague, 1948

Flagg Taylor on Havel & dissent

This course is part of our residential Political Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars and meet prominent men and women in public life over afternoon and evening sessions. Up to 32 fellows will be selected.

Faculty

Henry Olsen

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. Mr. Olsen is an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, where he writes daily pieces focusing on politics, populism, foreign affairs and American conservative thought.

Flagg Taylor

Flagg Taylor is an Associate Professor of Government at Skidmore College, and serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He is editor most recently of The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977–1989. He is currently writing a book on Czech dissent in the 1970s and 1980s and hosts The Enduring Interest podcast.

Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session

Readings:

  • Congressional Representation statistics, 1880–1916
  • Excerpts from Robert Mason, The Republican Party and American Politics from Hoover to Reagan, 11–15
  • Excerpts from Kevin Phillips, The Emerging Republican Majority, 52–59, 141, 148–51, 190–97, 334–39, 360–61, 364–71, 416–19
  • Congressional Representation statistics, 1918–1930
  • Excerpts from Donald A. Ritchie, Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932, 74–87, 100–03, 106–09, 132–33,138–39
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination” (1932)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Commonwealth Club Address” (1932)
  • Herbert Hoover, “Speech Accepting the Republican Nomination” (1932)
  • Herbert Hoover, “Campaign Speech in Madison Square Garden” (1932)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What policy challenge did FDR face in the period between 1929 and the 1932 election? What were the competing views with respect to how to address that challenge?
  2. What were FDR’s political challenges as he sought to advance his proposed solution to the policy challenge dividing the nation? How could he advance his solution to the challenge within the contours of democratic politics?

Readings:

FDR

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “First Inaugural Address” (1933)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Second Fireside Chat: On Progress during the First Two Months” (1933)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Fifth Fireside Chat: On Addressing the Critics” (1934)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Address to the Democratic National Convention” (1936)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Speech at Madison Square Garden” (1936)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Dedication of a Memorial to the Northwest Territory” (1938)
  • Donald A. Ritchie, Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932, pp. 2–3, 168–69, 176–89, 200–05, 208–09
  • William E. Leuchtenburg, The Legacy of FDR
  • William F. Buckley, “Our Mission Statement”
  • Congressional Representation 1932–1956

Reagan

  • Excerpts from Steven Hayward, The Age of Reagan, The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964–1980, 504–07, 516–23, 526–31, 540–44, 558–73, 590–95, 600–05
  • Congressional Representation 1958–1978
  • Partisan Voter Identification, 1939–1980
  • Ronald Reagan, “A Time for Choosing” (1964)
  • Ronald Reagan, National Review essay (1964)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How did FDR’s policy solution also solve his political challenges?
  2. What was FDR’s theory of America that made his policy solution seem to be the natural extension of American principles? How did he characterize his opponents and their arguments?
  3. What qualities did FDR demonstrate in navigating the political challenges as the advanced his policy solution? Are they unique to FDR or might they be shared by other democratic statesmen?
  4. What were the policy challenges Reagan faced prior to his election? What were the competing views with respect to how to address those challenges?
  5. What were Reagan’s political challenges as he sought to advance his proposed solutions to the policy challenges dividing the nation? How could he advance his solution to the challenges within the contour of democratic politics?

Readings:

  • Ronald Reagan, “The Creative Society Speech” (1966)
  • Ronald Reagan “CPAC Speech” (1977)
  • Ronald Reagan, “Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the RNC” (1980)
  • Ronald Reagan, “First Inaugural Address” (1981)
  • Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at a Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, D-Day” (1984)
  • Ronald Reagan, “Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the RNC” (1984)
  • Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at a Columbus Day Dinner” (1988)
  • Reagan Library Memorial Statement
  • Excerpts from Henry Olsen, The Working-Class Republican, 178–81, 232–33
  • Congressional Representation 1980–2020
  • Partisan Voter Identification, 1981–2020
  • Excerpts from Sean Wilentz, The Age of Reagan, pp. 306–15, 324–27, 334–35, 346–51, 356–59, 361–67, 372–73, 406–07, 414–15, 456–58

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How did Reagan’s policy solutions also solve his political challenges?
  2. What was Reagan’s theory of America that made his policy solutions seem to be the natural extension of American principles? How did he characterize his opponents and their arguments?
  3. What qualities did Reagan demonstrate in navigating the political challenges as he advanced his policy solutions? Are they unique to Reagan or might they be shared by other democratic statesmen?

Readings:

  • Pew Research Center, “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology” (2021)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the worldviews that divide the two parties’ bases today? What policy debates do these underlying worldviews implicate and form the answers each side presents?
  2. What types of voters appear to hold views in between the two partisan bases? What elements do they find attractive about each party’s worldview?
  3. Politicians win elections; statesmen form enduring coalitions that set the terms of debate and set the stage for election victories well beyond the initial one in which the new coalition was formed. What would a Democratic statesman need to do to form a new enduring coalition? What would a Republican one need to do?

Readings:

  • None

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Thinking about the two examples we have studied, is democratic statesmanship in America idiosyncratic to a time or its practitioners or does it possess certain enduring qualities?
  2. FDR and Reagan had been absent from the day-to-day practice of politics for many years before they emerged (or re-emerged) as potential national figures. Is this a coincidence or does it tell us something about the nature of American democratic statesmanship?
  3. Is democratic statesmanship possible in contemporary America?

 

Readings:

  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV, Ch. 3; Book VI, Chs. 5–9
  • Cicero, On Duties, Bk. 1, “On Magnanimity,” pp. 46–61 (44 BC)
  • Machiavelli, The Prince, Chs. 15–19, 21, 25 (1532)

 
Discussion Questions:

  1. What is greatness of soul or magnanimity? Why might this virtue be appropriate and necessary for statesmanship?
  2. What is prudence? Why might this virtue be appropriate and necessary for statesmanship?
  3. How are Aristotle’s and Cicero’s accounts of magnanimity different?
  4. What are the Machiavellian virtues appropriate and necessary for statesmanship?
  5. What are Machiavelli’s key departures from Cicero and Aristotle on statesmanship?

Readings:

  • The Federalist, 1, 37, 49, 51, 70–72
  • George Washington, “Farewell Address” (1796)
  • Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum” (1838)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, “Why One Finds So Many Ambitious Men in the United States and So Few Great Ambitions,” Democracy in America (1840)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the primary challenges for statesmen attempting to establish a new constitutional, republican political order?
  2. What constitutional devices allow for the cultivation of good statesmanship while limiting the possibilities of tyranny and demagoguery?
  3. Is the statesmanship required for the founding of a republic substantially different from the sort required for the perpetuation of a republic?
  4. What challenges does ambition pose to the founding and perpetuation of republican government?

Readings:

  • Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (excerpt) (1790)
  • Edmund Burke, To Charles-Jean-Francois Depont (1789)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections, Part I, Ch. 1; Part II, Chs. 1–3 (1896)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the Revolution, Book III, Chs. 1, 3 (1856)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do Burke and Tocqueville characterize political thinking properly understood with the political thinking characteristic of intellectuals and revolutionaries?
  2. What is Burke’s understanding of prudence (in politics, the “first of the virtues”)?
  3. How are reform and revolution different for Burke and Tocqueville?
  4. What are their respective understandings of liberty?
  5. What are the keys to succeeding as an orator and politician according to Tocqueville?

Readings:

  • Winston Churchill, “Wars are not Won by Evacuations,” June 4, 1940
  • Winston Churchill, “Their Finest Hour,” June 18, 1940
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat on the “Arsenal of Democracy,” December 29, 1940
  • Ronald Reagan, “Address to Members of the British Parliament,” June 8, 1982
  • Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Irish National Parliament,” June 4, 1984
  • Václav Havel, “New Year’s Address,” January 1, 1990
  • Václav Havel, Address to Joint Session of U.S. Congress, February 21, 1990
  • Václav Havel, “Politics, Morality, and Civility,” 1992

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does Churchill prepare and sustain his nation for the battles ahead?
  2. How does Churchill want the British citizens to think about themselves and the enemy they are confronting?
  3. How does FDR frame the conflict in Europe and what role ought the United States play there?
  4. What is Reagan’s understanding of the stakes in the Cold War?
  5. What are the principal challenges to be faced by Czechoslovakia following the collapse of Communism according to Havel?
  6. What does the rhetoric of all of these figures suggest about their respective understandings of statesmanship?

Readings:

  • Isaiah Berlin, “Political Judgment,” 1996
  • Carnes Lord, “Leadership and Statecraft” (2003)
  • Harry Clor, “Political Moderation: Balancing the Extremes” (2008)
  • Aurelian Craiutu, Why Not Moderation? (excerpt) (2023)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What sort of knowledge do good statesmen possess?
  2. While Berlin suggests statesmen possess a gift akin to what great novelist seem to possess, Lord argues that a statesman is similar to a general contractor. Explain these analogies.
  3. What is moderation according to Clor and Craiutu?
  4. How do these two accounts of moderation compare to Burke’s understanding of moderation?
  5. Why might statesmen need moderation?

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Biography Image

Robert C. Bartlett

Robert C. Bartlett is the Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. His principal area of research is classical political philosophy, with particular attention to the thinkers of ancient Hellas, including Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. He is the co-translator of a new edition of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.