Presidential Policy Spin on Iraq: Values Shape Decision Making Process

To manage complexity, leaders frame policy using metaphors to apply a normative dualism (hope/fear, freedom/repression, friend/enemy) to structure choices that lead to sure outcomes. Metaphors function as carriers of cultural meaning in persuasion and decision making. Highlighting presidential values bring to center stage the leadership dimension of foreign policy. Explicating dominant values of presidents adds to knowledge about presidential preferences and the use of framing in presentations. Beliefs and values are integral to the inferential mechanism of cognitive functioning that enables decision makers to manage complexity, to satisfice. A president's values provide a frame or lens to perceive policy issues, function to narrow selection and evaluation of alternatives, and shape understandings of probable consequences. Comparison of text on Iraq by Presidents Bush, Clinton, and W. Bush reveal expressed values through content analysis and logistic regression. The study of values augments other decision theory such as prospect,cognitive, frame,and poliheuristic theory, and is useful for those interested in political decision making.