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40 Presidential Stud. Q. 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/pstlssqty40 and id is 1 raw text is: 














    Ethical Issues in U.S. Presidential Leadership



                                          Guest Editors
                                        JOHN FOUSEK
                                Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University

                                      DAVID   WASSERMAN
                                Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University





       This  issue  of Presidential Studies  Quarterly  presents  a  collection  of papers   that
examine   diverse ethical issues concerning   the office of president of the United  States. The
collection  focuses  on  the  role  of ethics,  character,  and  virtue  in  determining what
constitutes  good   presidential  leadership  and  evaluating  the  performance of individual
presidents  and presidential  candidates.  The  collection grew  out of a symposium   organized
by  the Center  for Ethics at Yeshiva  University   and held  at the Center  for Jewish  History
in  New   York  City  on  January  30,  2008.  The   contributors  examine,   from  a variety  of
disciplinary  perspectives, such  questions  as whether  a president  can be  both effective and
ethical, whether   ethical political leadership  is possible or even  desirable  in a dangerous
global  environment, and whether effective political leadership requires dirty hands.'


       1. The editors of this special issue served as organizers of the January 2008 symposium. All of the
participants in that symposium contributed to the thought-provoking conversations from which these papers
grew. We are grateful to them for their input into the entire project. In particular, we want to acknowledge
four individuals, not represented in these pages, who played singular roles. David Rudenstine first proposed
the idea for the symposium and collaborated with us in developing the initial concept. Norman Lamm gave
a presentation on political lying and truth telling that he developed into a shorter essay than those included
here, which is available online (http://www.yu.edu/ethics). He also lent his august stature within the
university and its community to the proceedings. John Patrick Diggins presented a typically provocative talk
that we invited him to develop for this collection; his untimely death, however, made that impossible.
Fortunately, an abbreviated version of his talk appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education and provides a
useful complement  to the present collection (Diggins 2008). Fred Greenstein offered a combination of
skepticism and support that enriched the symposium and strengthened this special issue immeasurably. Fred
generously shared with us his deep knowledge of presidential studies and U.S. political history. He provided
sage advice on our  editorial task, critical readings of all of the papers, and a model of professional
collaboration.


      John Fousek, program director of the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University, is the author of To Lead the Free
World: American  Nationalism and the Cultural Roots of the Cold War. He is currently working on a book on
Louis Armstrong.
       David Wasserman is the director of research in the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University and a research scholar
at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He has published widely on ethics and
public policy.

Presidential Studies Quarterly 40, no. 1 (March) 1
©  2010 Center for the Study of the Presidency

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