Fourteen people have served in the presidency. Every one of them wanted to be remembered as an outstanding, if not great, President. But presidents who espoused passivity or self-denying inhibitions in the use of presidential power generally have not won high standing from historians. Great leaders who asserted themselves in response to domestic and global crises. They have been the presidents who rallied the nation to meet large challenges and who found workable answers to big questions. These leaders were often content to be caretakers who saw the country as more in need of freedom from government interference in economic and social matters than federal intervention to reform existing ways of life.Vision
The first requirement of presidential leadership is to point the republic in one or another direction. This can be done only if the person in the office possesses, or is possessed by, a vision of the ideal Philippines. Vision alone is never enough to assure a president a place in the front rank of presidents. But a compelling set of achievable objectives is a superb start. For a president, the only thing worse than clinging to a failed vision is having no vision at all. The country’s least successful chief executives have been those who had no clear idea of where they wished to steer the ship of state, especially in domestic affairs.
Pragmatism
Although all great presidents have been visionaries, they have also served the office as sensible realists or instrumentalists, as leaders who understood that political accomplishments often required flexibility of means to reach desirable ends. In a nation composed of a vast array of competing interests, presidential success has always depended at least partially on compromise with determined opponents. The corollary to the proposition that presidents without vision will perish is that without the right balance of political give and take, little, if anything, can be achieved by a chief executive. Successful presidents have always realized that they could not get very far without constantly accommodating to change—change in events, change in mood, change in ideas, change that offered opportunities to advance interests.
Charisma
The most successful presidents have also been larger-than-life figures, actors on the stage of history with an uncommon capacity to bring drama to the office. The media bring across the president, not as some neutral administrator or corporate executive to be assessed by his production, but as a special being with mysterious dimensions. Presidents have succeeded and failed in proportion to their effectiveness in making strong use of this power to become popular figures. The most capable have been able to reduce the distance between themselves and the people by diminishing the impersonality of the office, or by using their personal appeal to excite public interest and affection.
Credibility and Trust
Successful presidential leadership has always depended on a presidential administration’s credibility and the public’s trust in a president's word. "Trust is the coin of the realm." Presidents have lost their credibility in either of two ways: by breaking with accepted standards of national governance or by promising more than they could deliver. Indeed, observing traditional rules and fulfilling avowed goals have been crucial tests of presidential effectiveness.
Consensus Building
Vision, pragmatism, charisma, and trust have all been put in the service of building a national consensus for a president's leadership. Philippines most astute presidents have understood how vital a broad consensus is to any far-reaching domestic or foreign policy. They have also appreciated how fickle and unreliable the public mood has been, and how difficult it can be to get the nation to support a presidential proposal, especially if it represented a departure from customary patterns.
Luck
Great Presidents have come to their standing not simply by vision, pragmatism, charisma, trust, and consensus building, but also by lucky circumstances that favored their goals. The conditions surrounding the administrations of the nation’s most highly regarded presidents have been uniformly favorable to getting significant things done. Even if it is true that some presidents have possessed these key traits—activism, vision, pragmatism, charisma, consensus building, credibility—these qualities cannot be simply wished into being. There is no substitute for presidential intuition or innate savvy as a foundation for tackling the world's most challenging job.
Although all great presidents have been visionaries, they have also served the office as sensible realists or instrumentalists, as leaders who understood that political accomplishments often required flexibility of means to reach desirable ends. In a nation composed of a vast array of competing interests, presidential success has always depended at least partially on compromise with determined opponents. The corollary to the proposition that presidents without vision will perish is that without the right balance of political give and take, little, if anything, can be achieved by a chief executive. Successful presidents have always realized that they could not get very far without constantly accommodating to change—change in events, change in mood, change in ideas, change that offered opportunities to advance interests.
Charisma
The most successful presidents have also been larger-than-life figures, actors on the stage of history with an uncommon capacity to bring drama to the office. The media bring across the president, not as some neutral administrator or corporate executive to be assessed by his production, but as a special being with mysterious dimensions. Presidents have succeeded and failed in proportion to their effectiveness in making strong use of this power to become popular figures. The most capable have been able to reduce the distance between themselves and the people by diminishing the impersonality of the office, or by using their personal appeal to excite public interest and affection.
Credibility and Trust
Successful presidential leadership has always depended on a presidential administration’s credibility and the public’s trust in a president's word. "Trust is the coin of the realm." Presidents have lost their credibility in either of two ways: by breaking with accepted standards of national governance or by promising more than they could deliver. Indeed, observing traditional rules and fulfilling avowed goals have been crucial tests of presidential effectiveness.
Consensus Building
Vision, pragmatism, charisma, and trust have all been put in the service of building a national consensus for a president's leadership. Philippines most astute presidents have understood how vital a broad consensus is to any far-reaching domestic or foreign policy. They have also appreciated how fickle and unreliable the public mood has been, and how difficult it can be to get the nation to support a presidential proposal, especially if it represented a departure from customary patterns.
Luck
Great Presidents have come to their standing not simply by vision, pragmatism, charisma, trust, and consensus building, but also by lucky circumstances that favored their goals. The conditions surrounding the administrations of the nation’s most highly regarded presidents have been uniformly favorable to getting significant things done. Even if it is true that some presidents have possessed these key traits—activism, vision, pragmatism, charisma, consensus building, credibility—these qualities cannot be simply wished into being. There is no substitute for presidential intuition or innate savvy as a foundation for tackling the world's most challenging job.
