Stanley Renshon is professor of political science at the City University of New York, coordinator of its program in Political Psychology and a certified psychoanalyst. He was a postdoctoral fellow in psychology and politics at Yale. He earned his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He did his graduate work in clinical psychology at Long Island University and completed his psychoanalytic training at the Training and Research Institute for Self Psychology where he received his certification in 1991. Renshon is the author of many papers and seven books, including High Hopes: The Clinton Presidency and the Politics of Ambition, which won APSA’s Richard E. Neustadt Award for the best book on the presidency, and the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis’ Gradiva Award for the best biography. He is also the author of The Psychological Assessment of Presidential Candidates, an examination of the issue of psychological suitability in the presidency and how to judge it. Renshon’s research topic is “Election 2000: Is Character Still Relevant?”
Political Leadership in a Divided Electorate: Assessing Character Issues in the 2000 Presidential Campaign
January 1, 2001
A paper by Stanley Renshon, spring 2000 fellow, considers the role of character in the 2000 presidential campaign. Renshon states that “character issues” tell citizens something important about prospective leaders. Honesty, integrity and trustworthiness may well be virtues in themselves, but they are important for the nation’s political life. This is primarily so because they
