The Culture of Competence - Political Psychology and Public Office

Abstract

The paper asks how television has complicated the political process for politicians, despite its positive use as a tool of democracy for voters. In order to best understand how to answer this question, given the visual medium that is television, case studies of notable presidential debates were ideal over data analysis alone. The first Kennedy v. Nixon debate of 1960 and the second Clinton v. Bush debate of 1992 met expectations for that reason. Few other debates in American history have hindered so much on the details of candidate appearance, body language and nonverbal communication as those of Kennedy v. Nixon and Clinton v. Bush. Otherwise, a thirty-two year gap between their respective debates shows how aware viewers became of these politician performance factors in the interim. While the contrast between Nixon and Kennedy was more obvious, with the former looking sweaty and nervous while the latter appeared calm and cool, the difference between Bush and Clinton was more subtle. While both men answered the questions asked of them, Clinton did so in more of a personal way through direct eye contact and a firm stance on the stage, while Bush walked and looked around when he replied to inquiries. The extra attention Clinton provided gave him an edge over Bush and the crowd in that way. So, the introductory thesis of appearance, body language and non-verbal communication are what made the intervention of television in politics more challenging for politicians is concluded as accurate.