The American Presidency

Political Science 467

Spring 2012

Professor Dan Tichenor GTFs: Michael Faherty

Email: tichenor@uoregon.edu Jeremy Strickler

Phone: 6-4707

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 8:45-11:45am, PLC 927

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The central goal of this course is to enrich your understanding of the American presidency, with special emphasis on the uneasy relationship between liberty, democracy, and executive power.

During the ratification debates over the U.S. Constitution, Anti-Federalists charged that the Framers had created an executive office that would become “the fetus of monarchy,” one that would eventually rob the cherished liberties of individuals. At the same time, champions of democracy like Thomas Paine warned that executive leadership is a “slavish custom” poorly suited for representative systems in which citizens must be “proprietors in government.” From this perspective, presidential power has the potential to make citizens passive, dependent, and deferential – qualities unsuited for self-government. 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 keeping Americans safe in times of national security crisis.

Yet contemporary critics alternatively argue that our modern chief executives are ineffective in domestic policy and unaccountable in national security policy and foreign affairs. The original debate over liberty, democracy, and executive power rages on.

It is hard to imagine a better time to study the U.S. presidency. Not only are we in the middle of a momentous presidential election year, but a host of bedeviling challenges confront the White House today at home and abroad from soaring gas prices, high levels of unemployment, record national debt, and income inequality to menacing developments in Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. We will relish the opportunity to discuss the current issues, but we will do so within a rich context. 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 s/he 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, and nature of so-called presidential greatness.

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 your grade will suffer in this class.

• 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. There will be three “pop” quizzes to encourage you to keep up.

• 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: You are expected to turn off wireless devices such as laptops, cell phones, Blackberries, Ipods, and other distractions before class and discussion sections. If you have a need or strong preference to use a laptop to take notes during class, you must obtain permission to do so, sit in the first two rows of the classroom, and limit the use of laptops to taking notes.

• Quizzes: As already mentioned, three “pop” quizzes will be administered during the term and they are designed to encourage you to stay on top of the readings. There will be no makeup versions of the quizzes.

• Research Paper (8-12 pages double spaced). This course affords the opportunity to undertake a significant research project related to the American presidency. Guidelines for this required element of the course will be handed out at our second class meeting, and you will need to provide a one paragraph abstract of your proposed paper by the fourth class session (April 12^th) so that we may provide feedback as early as possible. You will have considerable flexibility in selecting a topic. Topics of past papers include presidents and health care reform, Lincoln and slavery, gender and the presidency, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam, executive privilege, the Reagan Revolution, divided government, reforming the presidential primary process, the Supreme Court nomination process, terror detainees and the use of torture, presidents and energy policy, Bush and immigration reform, presidential media relations, and budget politics, among others. Your paper is due at the beginning of class on May 29^th. Papers turned in after the beginning of class through the following 24 hours will receive an automatic half-grade deduction, with a one-grade penalty for every 24 hour-period that follows. It is in your interest to start your paper early and to turn it in on time.

• Midterm and Final Examinations: Both exams will be comprised of short-answer questions, identifications, and essay questions (more specifics later in the semester). An important note concerning absences from class exams: Excused absences must involve medical and/or family emergencies. If you have such an emergency, you are expected to notify me as soon as possible and to schedule a makeup in a timely fashion. No exams will be administered prior to a scheduled time and date.

• 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 are uncertain what plagiarism entails, please see http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/.

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

Midterm Exam 30%

Quizzes 10%

Research Paper 25%

Final Exam 35%

Participation Grade Bump Potential*

* 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

I have ordered the following required books through the university bookstore. A variety of other readings will be available on Blackboard.

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

Development, 6^th edition (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2011).

Michael Nelson, ed., The Presidency and the Political System, 9^th edition

(Congressional Quarterly Press, 2009).

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING SCHEDULE

April 3 - Introduction: On Liberty, Democracy, and Executive Power

April 5 - Constitutional Designs: Inventing the Presidency and Enduring Ambiguities

(Food for thought: Would the framers recognize the modern presidency? How limited or expansive did they expect presidential power to be?)

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 2.

David Nichols and Terri Bimes on whether the Constitutional Framers would approve of the modern presidency, Blackboard.

April 10 - Breathing Life Into the Office: Washington, Adams and the Early Presidency

(Food for thought: Do presidents have certain “inherent” powers? For instance, should presidents dominate foreign and national security policies?)

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 3.

Nancy Kassop and Richard Pious on presidential war power, Blackboard.

April 12 -The Presidency and Democratization: The Jeffersonian and Jacksonian “Revolutions” (Food for thought: Can elections be transformational? What are the merits and dangers of the Jackson/Van Buren model of partisan democracy?)

Typed, one-paragraph paper abstracts are due at the start of class

Readings: The American Presidency, chapters 4 and 5.

April 17 -The Lincoln Persuasion and the Prerogative Presidency

(Food for thought: Was Lincoln a “constitutional dictator”? What checks, if any, should be placed on the power of presidents during national security crises of the first order?)

Readings: The American Presidency, chapters 6.

April 19 – From Congressional Dominance to the Progressive Era Presidency that TR Built

(Food for thought: Can presidents be held accountable by the impeachment process? Did

Theodore Roosevelt breathe life into the modern presidency?)

Readings: The American Presidency, chapters 7-8.

April 24 - The Rise of the Rhetorical Presidency: Popular Leadership and Its Challenges

(Food for thought: What are the possibilities and perils of the president’s “bully pulpit” and of popular leadership more generally?)

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 9.

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

pages 57-84.

April 26 - In the Shadow of FDR: Toward a Modern Presidency

(Food for thought: What sets the “modern presidency” apart from earlier presidencies?

FDR struggled to define and defend his reform agenda against critics on the Left and

Right – how should we understand his public philosophy and policy legacies?)

Readings: The American Presidency, chapter 11.

May 1 – Theoretical Models of Presidential Leadership: Skill, Context, and Leadership Over Time (The Insights of Neustadt and Skowronek)

Readings: Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power, excerpt on Blackboard.

Skowronek, “Presidential Leadership in Political Time,” on Blackboard.

May 3 – Midterm Exam

May 8 – Presidential Personality and Character

Readings: James David Barber, Presidential Character, excerpt on Blackboard.

Fred Greenstein, The Presidential Difference, excerpt on Blackboard.

May 10 – Presidential Elections, I

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

chapter 7, pages 195-217.

May 15 – Presidential Elections, II

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

Nelson, chapter 8, pages 219-233.

May 17 -The Media and Presidential Public Relations

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

pages 255-280.

George Edwards, “The Presidential Pulpit: Bully or Baloney?,” Blackboard.

May 22 - Rivals for Power: Congress, the Presidency, and Domestic Policymaking

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

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

pages 311-336.

Roger Davidson, “Presidential Relations with Congress,” Blackboard.

May 24 - Venerable or Vulnerable Courts?: Executive and Judicial Powers

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

pages 481-504.

May 29 - A Tale of Two Wars: Executive Discretion and National Security

Readings: Fisher, Presidential War Power, chapters 1, 3, and 6, pages 1-16, 56-80, and 128-153, available on Blackboard.

RESEARCH PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

May 31 -Thirteen Days: Presidential Leadership in the Nuclear Age

Readings: Polsky, “The Presidency at War,” in Nelson, Chapter 17.

June 5 – Freedom Under Fire: Prerogative Power and Civil Liberties

Readings: Geoffrey Stone, War and Liberty, Blackboard.

Jack Goldsmith, The Terror Presidency, Blackboard.

June 7 – Parting Thoughts: Presidential Greatness, Executive Power and Liberal Democracy

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

Marc Landy and Bruce Miroff on presidential greatness, Blackboard.