The American Presidency

Political Science 467

Fall 2009

Meetings: T/Th 10:00-11:20am

Professor Dan Tichenor GTFs: Mr. Jeremy Strickler

Email: tichenor@uoregon.edu Mr. Jack McDowell

Office: PLC 927

Office Hours: Thursdays, 11:30-2:30

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this course is to enhance your understanding of the American presidency. Throughout the term, we will pay close attention to the young Obama administration as it advances an ambitious agenda amidst significant economic, political, and international challenges. We also will place special emphasis on investigating the tensions between executive power, democracy, and freedom over time. More than two centuries ago, Thomas Paine warned that executive leadership is a “slavish custom” poorly suited for representative systems in which citizens must be “proprietors in government.” Committed democrats like Paine have viewed presidential power with dread, since it has the potential to make citizens passive, dependent, and deferential – qualities decidedly ill-suited for self-government. Moreover, during major national crisis, defenders of civil liberties have worried that executive emergency powers profoundly threaten individual and group freedoms. Over time, however, presidents have presented themselves as the only elected representative of the whole people and the true embodiment of the popular will. In this view, other political actors – legislators, bureaucrats, party officials, and lobbyists – are taken to represent only partial or selfish interests. “The President is the political leaders of the nation, or has it in his choice to be,” observed Woodrow Wilson. “The nation as a whole has chosen him, and is conscious that it has no other political spokesman. Its instinct is for unified action, and it craves a single leader.” Champions of broad executive power argue that presidential leadership is both crucial for advancing the democratic will of the people and critical for guarding the public good in times of national security crisis.

Our analysis of presidential leadership will illuminate the nature of the presidency as an institution as well as the significance of the person who occupies the office at any given moment. Along the way, we will consider how executive influence is shaped by an American political system that fragments power among numerous political actors and structures. We also will consider how the timing of a presidential term affects the capacity of an incumbent to exercise leadership and the character of what she attempts to accomplish. During the first portion of this course, we will study the origins and development of the American presidency, concentrating on its constitutional design and how the powers, functions, and expectations of the executive office evolved over more than two centuries. Equally important, we will consider distinctive theoretical perspectives on presidential leadership during this portion of the course, considering individual agency, historical context, and structural opportunities and constraints. The second portion of the course focuses on key features of the modern presidency, such as presidential selection, executive interactions with the media and press, Congress, the judiciary, the federal bureaucracy, interest groups and political parties, domestic policy-making, presidential war powers and crisis-management. Towards the end of the term, we will concentrate on the anti-terrorism policies of the Bush years, the “unitary theory of the executive,” and the Obama administration’s approach to waging the War on Terror. We also will consider more generally how we should evaluate the early Obama presidency in light of the enormous expectations it confronts.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Attendance: It is strongly recommended that you attend all classes. The lectures and discussions will include material not in your readings, for which you will be responsible on the exams. If you do not attend class regularly and take careful notes, it is a safe bet that you will struggle mightily on exams and assigned papers.

• Reading: You should come to class having completed the reading assignments as scheduled in the course outline. This will enable you to follow the lectures, to be actively engaged in discussions, and to raise relevant questions. You will note from the course outline that reading in some weeks is more demanding than others. I urge you to read ahead when you can.

• Participation: Paolo Freire, one of the past century’s most influential education theorists, observed that too often classroom education is a process in which students are treated as empty vaults into which their instructors make “deposits” of knowledge. The problem with this “banking” approach to education, he writes, is that education is most effective and liberating when there is a strong “dialogue” in the classroom and when students become teachers and vice versa. I largely agree. Indeed, my lecture style will invite your participation and I will frequently open our topics for discussion. This course is designed to encourage lively discussions, but they require you to come to class both prepared in terms of the readings and willing to jump into the fray.

• Electronic devices: Please turn off wireless devices such as cell phones, Blackberries, and the like before class. Please limit the use of laptops to taking notes on lectures and discussions.

• Two short papers (3-4 pages double-spaced): These short papers will ask you to respond to one of 2-3 questions drawn from material presented in the readings and lectures. These will be graded on the basis of strong engagement of the material, clear writing, and persuasive analysis. These are expected to be polished essays of roughly three-to-four typed pages each (you will be free to consult your notes and readings, but not other carbon-based life forms!).

• Midterm and Final Examinations: Both exams will be comprised of short-answer questions/identifications, a matching section, and essay questions (more specifics later in the semester). An important note concerning absences from class exams: Absences from exams must be excused with a note from the Dean’s office or the athletic office. No exams will be administered prior to a scheduled time and date, so make your travel plans with this in mind. of your college and with my approval. You are expected to inform me as soon as you know that you must be absent from an assigned exam.

• Academic Integrity: If there is clear and convincing evidence that a student engaged in dishonest academic behavior, the instructor will have the authority to take appropriate actions. You should be aware that dishonest behavior includes both “giving” and “taking” of improper assistance on exams, papers, or any other form of attempting to take credit for work that is not your own. Thanks to recent software, it is not difficult to detect cheating and plagiarism. If you uncertain plagiarism, please see http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/.

• Calculating the Grade: Your final grade will be calculated based on the following components:

First Short Paper 10%

Midterm Exam 35%

Second Short Paper 15%

Final Exam 40%

Participation positive wiggle room (Not all of us are comfortable

speaking up in class, so I will not deduct for sparse

participation. However, quality participation will

encourage me to bump up your grade).

REQUIRED READINGS

Three books are required for this course, and all should be available at the UO Bookstore. If you elect to purchase books from an online seller, please be sure to buy the most recent edition.

Sidney Milkis and Michael Nelson, The American Presidency: Origins and

Development, 1776-2002, 5^th edition (Congressional Quarterly Press,

2008).

Michael Nelson, ed., The Presidency and the Political System, 8^th edition

(Congressional Quarterly Press, 2006).

Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into the War on American Ideals (New York: Doubleday, 2008)

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING SCHEDULE

September 29-Introduction: On Liberty, Democracy, and Executive Power

October 1-Constitutional Designs: Inventing the Presidency

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 2.

October 6-Breathing Life Into the Office: Washington, Adams and the Early Presidency

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 3.

October 8-The Presidency and Democratization: The Jeffersonian and Jacksonian “Revolutions”

Readings: The American Presidency, chapters 4 and 5.

October 13-The Lincoln Persuasion and the Postwar Reaction Against Presidential Power

Readings: The American Presidency, chapters 6 and 7.

FIRST SHORT PAPER ASSIGNMENT DISTRIBUTED

October 15-The Rise of the Rhetorical Presidency: Popular Leadership and Its Challenges

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 8.

Tulis, “The Two Constitutional Presidencies,” in Nelson, chapter 3

pages 57-84.

October 20-In the Shadow of FDR: Toward a Modern Presidency

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 11.

October 22-Theoretical Models of Presidential Leadership: Skill, Context, and Leadership Over Time

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 12.

Skowronek, “Presidential Leadership in Political Time,” in Nelson

chapter 4, pages 89-133.

FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE

October 27-Presidential Personality and Character

Readings: The American Presidency, chapters 13 and 14.

October 29-MIDTERM EXAMINATION

November 3-Presidential Selection and the Epochal 2008 Campaign

Readings: Pious,”The Presidency and the Nominating Process,”in Nelson,

chapter 7, pages 195-217.

Aldrich et al, “The Presidency and the Election Campaign,”in

Nelson, chapter 8, pages 219-233.

November 5-The Media and Presidential Public Relations

Readings: Miroff, “The Presidential Spectacle,” in Nelson, chapter 10,

pages 255-280.

November 10-Rivals for Power: Congress and the Presidency

Readings: Dickinson, “The President and Congress,” in Nelson, chapter 17,

pages 455-477.

November 12-Venerable or Vulnerable Courts?: Executive and Judicial Powers

Readings: Yalof, “The Presidency and the Judiciary,” in Nelson, chapter 18,

pages 481-504.

November 17-Domestic Policy Leadership

Readings: Tichenor, “The Presidency and Interest Groups: Allies,

Adversaries, and Policy Leadership,” in Nelson, chapter 12,

pages 311-336.

SECOND SHORT PAPER ASSIGNMENT DISTRIBUTED

November 19-A Tale of Two Wars: Executive Discretion and National Security

Readings: Mayer, The Dark Side, chapters 1-4, pages 1-71.

November 24-Thirteen Days: Presidential Leadership in the Nuclear Age

Readings: Mayer, The Dark Side, chapters 5-7, pages 72-181.

November 26-HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (SAVE SOME PIE FOR ME)

December 2 – Freedom Under Fire: Prerogative Power and Civil Liberties

Readings: Mayer, The Dark Side, chapters 9-11, pages 213-294.

SECOND SHORT PAPER DUE

December 4 – Wrap Up: The Search for Presidential Greatness in a Liberal Democracy

Readings: Mayer, The Dark Side, chapter 12 and Afterword, pages 295-335.

Nelson, “Evaluating the Presidency,” in Nelson, chapter 1, pages 1-23.