CLINTON POLICY DILEMMAS - A COGNITIVE ANALYSIS

President Clinton's leadership has been criticized as being too indeci sive, overly flexible, and lacking in a firm commitment to valued goal s. Although such characteristics imply an excessively high level of co gnitive complexity, the scoring of Clinton's utterances during the 199 2 campaign and during the first eight months of his administration rev eals that his integrative complexity is generally very low compared to a group of other recent presidents of the U. S. Unlike most, he showe d no increase in complexity after his election. This pattern, reflecti ng faulty cognitive management of resources applied to problem solving , is similar to those of unsuccessful presidents (Nixon, Carter, Hardi ng, and Hoover) and failed (as opposed to successful) revolutionary le aders. The possible sources, meanings, and implications of this findin g are discussed.