Abstract
The personality of a leader can influence the manner and perceptions of decision making. Personality may affect how leaders define and react to issues and situations. Prior scholarship has used personality to predict the success of American presidents. However, scholars have neither identified the personality characteristics of California governors nor used personality to account for their policy decisions and actions. This thesis aims to identify the personalities of Governors Davis and Schwarzenegger and assess whether this can be used as an indicator of success in the California Office of the Governor. I first conducted a literature review based on James David Barber's model of predicting presidential personality in the White House. Using the literature review as a starting point, I was able to create my own research design. This design included researching academic journals that outlined both Governor Davis' and Schwarzenegger's personality and performance in elections and tenure, as well as reviewing speeches, newspaper · articles, interviews, biographies and statistical data illustrating public approval rates. I used all of this information too classify each governor's personality into the Barber
model. My research found that personality is a viable predictor of success in the Office of Governor. Voters, when given the choice, will undoubtedly choose an active personality. Additionally, voters will discard a candidate or elect someone else if the sitting leader shows signs of active-negative personality traits.