Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 8-1994 The Unprepossessing Mr. Ryan: Understanding Exemplary Legislative Leadership Barbara A. K. Adams Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the American Politics Commons, and the Leadership Studies Commons Recommended Citation Adams, Barbara A. K., "The Unprepossessing Mr. Ryan: Understanding Exemplary Legislative Leadership" (1994). Dissertations. 1816. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1816 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE UNPREPOSSESSING MR. RYAN: UNDERSTANDING EXEMPLARY LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP by Barbara A. K. Adams A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Public Administration School of Public Affairs and Administration Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 1994 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE UNPREPOSSESSING MR. RYAN: UNDERSTANDING EXEMPLARY LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP Barbara A. K. Adams, D.P.A. Western Michigan University, 1994 This study focuses on the character attributes, philosophy, political skills, policy agenda, and administrative activities of William A. Ryan, Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1969 through 1974 and a House member from 1958 through 1982. The case siudy is embedded in a history of Michigan’s political culture, which is characterized by moralistic and individualistic strands often in conflict with one another. The research hypothesis was that administrative virtue in legislative leadership is best described in terms of utilitarian ethics, the ability to control and manage factionalism in the interest of incremental change. The rival hypothesis was that an adequate understanding of exemplary legislative leadership must account for the significance of character ethics, attributes that form an essential part of the leader’s moral authority. This qualitative study used a combination of oral history, historical source materials, and content analysis of legislative documents to achieve "qualitative triangulation." Comparative analysis was achieved through study of the regimes of the two Michigan House Speakers preceding Mr. Ryan and the one following him. The method borrowed significantly from psychohistory. Particular attention Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was paid to the concept of the identity crisis in political entities and the role of government leaders in facilitating resolution of competing moral claims, leading to healthy maturation of the state. The findings were that Mr. Ryan’s reputation as an exemplary legislative leader was based only partially on his repeated demonstration of superb political skills. Of at least equal significance were character attributes such as humility, modesty, and asceticism, as well as a strong identification with the state legislative institution. Exemplary legislative leadership may best be understood in terms of the leader’s ability to facilitate sustained democratic discourse characterized by: (a) meaningful representation of and input from all affected stakeholders, (b) civility and compromise among political leaders who may strongly disagree with one another, and (c) policy resolutions that, though imperfect, reflect lines of convergence on what public values are and ought to be. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text direcdy from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Order Number 9502500 The unprepossessing Mr. Ryan: Understanding exemplary legislative leadership Adams, Barbara A. K., D.P.A. Western Michigan University, 1994 Copyright ©1994 by Adams, Barbara A. K. All rights reserved. 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, M l 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Barbara A. K. Adams 1994 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of many people. Two members ofmydissertion committee, Dr. Ralph C. Chandler and Dr. William F. Grimshaw, have nurtured my intellectual development for close to ten years now. The third, Dr. Kathleen Reding, has been equally helpful since she joined the faculty at the School of Public Affairs and Administration. An informal member of my advisory committee has been Dr. Margrit Hugentobler, who, although now residing in her home state of Switzer­ land, has provided on-going counsel and assistance via the “information superhighway," e-mail. Special thanks are due to William A. Ryan, not only for the time and energy he devoted to this project, but also for his continued openness and willingness to submit himself to cross-examination for a period of some three years. The other informants cited in this report also gave generously of theirtime and knowledge, as did Rick Gamber, with whom I pretested the interview script. My dissertation Chair, Dr. Ralph Clark Chandler, brought to life for me the moral battlefields on which the American republic was founded and from which it has again and again rediscovered its soul. This work bears witness to the reality that political courage, personal salvation, and bureaucratic control can sometimes be mutually reinforcing goals of the life well lived in the service of the state. Barbara A. K. Adams ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................. ii CHAPTER I. AN INQUIRY INTO ADMINISTRATIVE VIRTUE IN THE AMERICAN STATES.................................................................. 1 Introduction...................................................................... 1 The Research Project....................................................... 2 The Unprepossessing Mr. Ryan.......................... 2 Life History, Political Culture, and Identity Formation............................................................. 9 The Virtuous Politician-An Oxymoron?......... 12 The Research Question and Hypotheses................... 19 The Research Strategy and Perspective...................... 22 Research Methods...............................................22 Research Perspective.........................................26 Structure of the Dissertation........................................ 31 Endnotes ........................................................................ 34 II. THE CONFIDENCE CRISIS, THE MADISONIAN DILEMMA, AND THE PROBLEM OF REPRESENTATION........................ 36 Introduction...................................................................... 36 The Confidence Crisis................................................... 38 Political Theater in the 1990s............................ 38 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents-Continued CHAPTER The Confidence Crisis.........................................42 The Madisonian Dilemma and the Utility of the Virtues ............................................................................ 45 The Madisonian Dilemma .................................. 45 The Utility of the