• How does the Constitution both strengthen and constrain the chief executive?
• How has the balance of power shifted between the White House and the Capitol?
• How does the president deal with aides and bureaucrats?
• How does a president win election -- and reelection?
• How does a president deliberate on foreign and domestic policy?
• What lies ahead for the American presidency?

Classes

Classes will include lecture and discussion.  Finish the readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings.  We shall also talk about breaking news, so you must read a good news source such as the RealClearPolitics or Politico 

Grades

The following will make up your course grade:

• Three 4-page essays: 20% each 

• Final exam: 30%

• Class participation: 10%

The papers will develop your research and writing skills.  In grading your papers, I will take account of the quality of your writing, applying the principles of Strunk and White's Elements of Style.  If you object to this approach, do not take this course, or anything else that I teach. 

The exam will test your comprehension.  Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet.  If you often miss class or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer. In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts and web links covering current events and basic factual information.  The exam will cover this material. 

There is also a class blog: http://gov102.blogspot.com/.  I shall regularly post material on the blog (e.g., links that we shall discuss or have discussed in class).  I urge you to post to the blog, which will help your class participation grade.

As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive on time, and refrain from eating in class.  I reserve the right to withhold class handouts from latecomers.  Check due dates for coursework and arrange your schedule accordingly.  Do not plan on seeking extensions.     

Plagiarism will mean referral to the Academic Standards Committee.

Required Books

• Sidney M. Milkis and Michael Nelson, The American Presidency:  Origins and Development, 6th ed. (Washington:  CQ Press, 2012).      
• Joseph A. Pika and John Anthony Maltese, The Politics of the Presidency, 8th revised ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2014).
• John Sides and Lynn Vavreck, The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013).

 Also see links on my Presidency page.

Schedule (subject to change, with notice)

Sept 3:  Introduction

"Don't fall in love with politicians, they're all a disappointment. They can't help it, they just are." -- Peggy Noonan

Sept 8, 10:  The Presidency in the Founding Era  

“Frequent war and constant apprehension, which require a state of as constant preparation, will infallibly produce [standing armies].  It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.”  -- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 8.

• Milkis and Nelson, ch. 1-3.

• The Constitution, Article II

• Washington's Farewell Address
  

• Pika, ch. 1.

Sept 15, 17: The 19th Century Presidency

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong."
"God must have loved the common people; he made so many of them."
"You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time."
-- Fake Lincoln quotations

• Milkis and Nelson, ch. 4-7.
• Thomas Jefferson 1801 inaugural
• Jackson bank veto message
• Lincoln letter to Albert Hodges on presidential prerogative
• Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and second inaugural
  

FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNED SEPT 15 DUE SEPT 29.

Read  Strunk and White's Elements of Style

Sept 22, 24 :  From the Big Stick to the Military-Industrial Complex

"We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1912.

• Milkis and Nelson, ch. 8-11
• Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson on presidential power
• FDR 1933 inaugural address
• Eisenhower 1961 farewell address
  

Sept 29, Oct 1:  The Contemporary Presidency

"We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys."-- LBJ,  September 25, 1964

•  Milkis and Nelson, ch. 12-14

Oct 6, 8:  Presidential Selection I

"According to the old rules of American politics, Mitt Romney should win the Republican presidential nomination. He came in second last time. He’s got lots of money. He’s got a better chance of defeating Barack Obama than his leading opponents. But he’s unlikely to win because we live in an age of presidential hatred. These days, to win your party’s nomination you must be the polar opposite of the president your party despises. Any significant resemblance between yourself and him and you’re done. " -- Peter Beinart, September 5, 2011

• Pika, ch. 2
• Sides and Vavreck, ch 1-4.

Oct 13, 15: Presidential Selection II

"Mitt Romney will win big tonight.  His popular vote margin will be between 3 – 5%.  He will win the Electoral College I believe by a vote of 321 to 217, and with luck, even more." -- Steve Forbes, November 6, 2012.

• Sides and Vavreck, ch. 5-7

SECOND ESSAY ASSIGNED OCTOBER 15, DUE OCTOBER 29.

Oct 22: The Public Presidency

"We once wrote, `This nation will prepare.  We will not live in fear.  We choose to fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here,' only to read it aloud and realize it sounded less like Winston Churchill than Dr. Seuss." -- Matthew Scully, on writing for George W. Bush

• Pika, ch. 3
• FDR's "Map Speech," February 23, 1942, (click tab on right for audio)
  

Oct 27, 29:  The Public Presidency, Character, and Performance

"ACTION IS CHARACTER." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Pika, ch. 4.
• Nixon memo to Haldeman, December 4, 1970
• Reagan, 1983 "Evil Empire" speech in Orlando:  both the manuscript (see link here)  and the video/transcript
• Peggy Noonan, What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (New York: Random House, 1990), ch. 5. (on Sakai)
  
• Reid Cherlin, "The Presidency and the Press," Rolling Stone, August 4, 2014.     
  

Nov 3, 5:  Executive Branch

"One heartbeat away from the presidency and not a single vote cast in my name. Democracy is so overrated." -- Frank Underwood

• Pika, ch. 6.
• Milkis and Nelson, ch. 16.
• David B. Cohen, Karen M. Hult, and Charles E. Walcott, “The Chicago Clan: The Chiefs of Staff in the Obama White House,” Social Science Quarterly 93 (December 2012): 1101-1126.
• House Judiciary Committee hearing, February 26, 2014, prepared statements of  Jonathan Turley and Christopher Schroeder
  

THIRD ESSAY ASSIGNED NOVEMBER 5, DUE NOVEMBER 19

Nov 10, 12: President and Congress

• Pika, ch. 5.
• Rep. Albert Thomas gets the Johnson Treatment, December 20, 1963 (text and audio)
• Todd Garvey, "Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications"  (Washington: Congressional Research Service, 2012).
• Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power (New York: Knopf, 2012), ch. 23 (on Sakai).

Nov 17, 19: Judiciary and Civil Rights

""We should reverse the presumption of confirmation." -- Senator Charles Schumer 

• Pika, ch. 7
• The Little Rock School Integration Crisis (Eisenhower documents)
• "Mississippi Burning," LBJ text and audio 

Nov 24, 26:  Domestic and Economic Policy

"You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid." -- Rahm Emanuel

• Pika, ch. 8-9.

Dec 1, 3: Foreign Policy and National Security

President Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space… This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
President Medvedev: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”–Exchange between President Obama and Dmitri Medvedev, March 26, 2012

• Pika, ch. 10-11
• Robert Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (New York: Knopf, 2014), excerpts on Sakai.

Dec 8, 10: The Future of the Presidency

• Milkis and Nelson, ch. 15
• Sides and Vavreck, ch. 8.

FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18 AT 2 PM