Part II. Methods for Assessing Leader
Personalities: An Introduction
The Search for Causal Mechanisms
Stephen G. Walker and Jerrold M. PostWe noted in chapter i the distinction between qualitative and quan-
titative methods of leadership assessment generated by the contribu-
tors to this volume. In part 2, the qualitative methods employed by
Post (chap. 4) and Renshon (chap. 5) identify the structure of the
individual's personality and character. The quantitative methods
used by Weintraub (chap. 6), Winter (chap. 7), and Suedfeld, Grut-
tieri, and Tetlock (chap. 10) provide an expanded analysis of differ-
ent parts of a leader's personality, including beliefs, cognitive style,
and other personality traits. Hermann (chap. 8) and Walker, Schafer,
and Young (chap. 9) embed their respective assessments of leaders in
a typology defined by a particular constellation of beliefs, motiva-
tions, or traits. All of these analyses specify procedures for detecting
different causal mechanisms, denned as processes operating inside
the individual and connecting environment and outcomes, as indi-
cated in the graphic that follows (adapted from Hedstrom and
Swedberg 1998, 9; see also Bunge 1967).
Structural Causal Decision
Environment Mechanisms OutcomesStructural theorists of world politics often assume (a) the causal
mechanisms of agency are transparently "thin" models of rational
choice responding to environmental conditions, and (b) these mech-
anisms are not autonomous in their effects, explaining very little of63