- Winter 2019
Syllabus Description:
POL S 355: The American Presidency
Winter 2019
Instructor: Dr. Scott Lemieux
Office hours: T/Th 1:30-2:30 and by appointment
Office location: Gowen 114
TA: Stephanie Stanley
Office Hours: T/Th 10:30-11:30 and by appointment
Office location: Smith 31
“A politician thinks of the next election, a statesman thinks of the next generation.”
- James Freeman Clarke
“The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.” – Jimmy Breslin
“No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.”
Course description
This course will examine the development of the American presidency. We will start by examining the formal powers of the presidency and then examine how the power of the president has changed over time (even as the formal powers of the office remain largely unchanged.) We will examine such issues as the presidential nomination and election process, how leadership patterns recur throughout history, how the presidency has influenced civil rights, how the president works with other branches, and the foreign policy powers of the presidency.
Course books
The books for the course are available for purchase at the University Bookstore and all major online booksellers:
Stephen Skowronek, Presidential Leadership in Political Time: Reprise and Reappraisal, 2nd ed.
Rebecca Thorpe, The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending
You should also keep up with the national news, and you may want to read political science blogs, which provide short and timely content from a scholarly perspective. A few I recommend:
The Monkey Cage at Washingtonpost.com – Andrew Rudalevige does most of their executive branch blogging, but they have guest posts as well.
The Upshot at nytimes.com
Presidential Power Blog, by Matthew Dickinson, professor of political science at Middlebury College
Mischiefs of Faction on Vox.com
FiveThirtyEight.com – data journalism site
High-quality news sources with a conservative editorial tilt:
Wall Street Journal
National Review
Weekly Standard
The Economist
Real Clear Politics
High-quality news sources with a liberal editorial tilt:
The New York Times
Washington Post
The Nation
Los Angeles Times
The New Republic
Other electronic resources you might find helpful:
The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu (Links to an external site.)
The Miller Center at the University of Virginia, www.millercenter.org (Links to an external site.)
General Requirements and Class Policies:
- Students are expected to come to class and have completed the assigned cases prior to class. Lectures will assume that students have read the assigned readings.
- This course will comply fully with the Americans With Disabilities Act and all relevant university procedures. If you require accommodation because of a disability please consult the university’s procedures here: http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/
- Exams missed without prior agreement with the instructor or a documented family or medical emergency will not receive a grade, without exception.
- Incompletes will only be given to students who have completed a substantial amount of the assigned work, and then only in cases of a documented family or medical emergency.
- Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic dishonesty will result in a grade of “F” for the given assignment, and students will also be subject to the disciplinary procedures for such conduct outlined on the University of Washington website: https://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf
Exams, assignments and grading:
There will be two in-class exams and a take-home final exam. Each will constitute 33.3% of the grade. Students can earn a bonus of up to .3 on the 4.0 scale by making contributions to class discussions.
Grade appeals process
- If you would like to appeal your grade, please wait 24 hours after receiving your assignment. After 24 hours have elapsed, submit a typed and printed appeal and that explains why you deserve a better grade and the graded assignment to the TA. Please note that your entire assignment will be regraded.
- Once the TA has reviewed your appeal, she will set up an appointment to discuss your appeal
- If you are still unsatisfied with your grade, the TA will take your assignment and appeal to the professor. Please note that the professor will not review your appeal until the TA has made an assessment of your appeal.
- Note that if you request a re-grade by the professor your grade may be lowered, raised, or left unchanged once you have submitted your grade appeal.
- All grade appeals must be submitted within one week of the graded assignment being handed back.
Course Schedule
Note: Readings listed here will be supplemented/replaced with readings put on the course’s Canvas site as events warrant. ALWAYS CONSULT THE MOST RECENT VERSION OF THE SYLLABUS BEFORE CLASS.
1/8 Class Introduction
1/10-15 The Constitutional Presidency
U.S. Constitution, Article II
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 69-71 Available at: https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers
1/17-22 Presidents, Elections, and Race
Megan Ming Francis, Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State ch.3 (excerpt will be posted on Canvas)
Richard Neustadt, "Presidential Power and the Modern Presidency" (on Canvas under "Files")
Dara Lind, “19 Maps & Charts That Explain Voting Rights in America,” Vox, August 6, 2015
Sides et. al., Identity Crisis [Ch. 1,4,8,9, on Canvas under "Files"]
1/24-2/5 Presidential Leadership, Communication and Reputation
Edwards, On Deaf Ears [Ch. 1-3, on Canvas under "Files"]
Ezra Klein, “The Unpersuaded,” The New Yorker March 19, 2012
Shanto Iyengar, “The Media Game: New Moves, Old Strategies” (under "Files" on Canvas)
2/7 First in-class midterm
2/8-21 The Presidency in "Political Time"
Skowronek, Presidential Leadership in Political Time Ch 1-3; 6.
Julia Azari, “Trump's presidency signals the end of the Reagan era,” vox.com, December 1, 2016
Scott Lemieux, “Is Donald Trump the Next Jimmy Carter?,” The New Republic January 23, 2017
Matthew Yglesias, “This is the ultimate semi-arbitrary ranking of American presidents,” Vox.com, Februrary 16, 2015.
2/26 The Presidency, the Regulatory State, and the Judiciary
Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (1984)
King v. Burwell (2015) [see excerpts in "files"]
Sarah Kliff, "Meet Michael Cannon."
Jon Chait, "The New Secret History of the Obamacare Deniers"
2/28 Second in-class midterm
3/5-14 The Presidency, The Courts, and Foreign Policy
Pika, "Judicial Politics"
Polsky, Elusive Victories [Ch. 1,2,5- on Canvas under "Files"]
Rebecca Thorpe, The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending Ch 1-3, 7-9
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952)
Korematsu v. United States 323 US 214 (1944)
Trump v. Hawaii (2018)
Mark Graber, “Counter-stories: Maintaining and Expanding Civil Liberties in Wartime.”