Through a study entitled Demoralization and Hope - creating the social foundations for sustaining democracy, a comparative study of ideas of N.F.S. Grungtvig of Denmark and B.R. Ambedkar of India, he contributed to the development of civil society theory.
During his confirmation hearing, Senator Daniel Akaka told Saul he would be facing a difficult situation, as the outgoing Executive Director had taken a number of actions before his sudden departure which led to "demoralization of the TSP staff, expensive lawsuits, investigations, rancorous battles with other agencies, along with the costs of a failed record keeping system project" that were all eventually dealt with by the FRTIB.