Political
Science 308,
Spring
2012
Bill
Newmann, L. Douglas Wilder
Office
Hours: 218 Scherer Hall, Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-1:45 and by appointment;
Phone
Number: 828-8038: 24 hours a day: I have voice mail. E-mail: wnewmann@vcu.edu
Newmann's home page
with links to other course syllabi (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~wnewmann)
Links to the
Presidency that will be useful or interesting (some might even be
both).
Polls and Sites with Electoral College
Charts
·
Gallup Poll Index (with
topics indexed)
·
Congressional
Quarterly Poll Tracker
Sites
with Excellent non-partisan political coverage
·
Real Clear Politics links to articles from
everywhere
·
Politico comprehensive coverage of political events
Possible the two most
important sites that exist (These examine claims made by politicians, candidates, and pundits. Are they true or are they half-truths, or are
they complete lies. It also checks media
stories and official pronouncements of the president and congress)
·
Fact Check.Org
From the
Reference
·
270 to Win (info on presidential
elections)
·
Dave Leip’s
Atlas of US Presidential Elections info on every US presidential election and more
Introduction
The presidency is a huge topic. Recognizing this, the
course will take a sweeping look at the US Presidency, arguably the single most
powerful office in the history of the planet. Getting a handle on the
presidency is a difficult, if not impossible job. Probably the best way to
start learning about the subject is to think of the US presidency as the nexus
of three streams: (1) the times -- the ebb and flow of American political
culture, national trends, and international historical forces; (2) the
presidency -- the office and powers of the institution as it has evolved from
the US Constitution to the media-focused, celebrity Presidency of the 1980s and
1990s; and (3) The president --
the character, vision, strengths and weaknesses of the man or woman who
occupies the Oval Office. As these three streams come together the political
history of the nation is shaped. The US
has been called a "Presidential Nation." It is in the office of the
presidency where the US people have decided to place power time and again. In
the historical grappling for power between the president and Congress the US
people have continually sided with the president. It is the place where we look
for leadership, and direction. The person who occupies that office is given a
stature like no other. (Has anyone seen any monuments to senators or
representatives?) The president gets too much credit when things go well and
too much blame when things go wrong. For better or worse, the president has
become the embodiment of the nation, and therefore, his or her character,
personal habits and infirmities become the stuff of national obsession, and
national security. (During the 1980s, the polyps on Ronald Reagan's colon
received more media attention than the workings of the Federal Reserve.)
The office of the president is the repository of the
greatest powers in the land, not just in terms of physical power (the authority
to use military force, even nuclear weapons), but moral power -- the ability to
shift the ethical standards of a nation and to influence, if not define, the
national mood. Our presidential elections often focus on issues of personal
character, not issues of economic, social or foreign policy. We seem to be
choosing not simply someone to run the country, but someone to represent us --
half-prime minister, half-monarch. Our choices see to depend on the national
mood.
One of the key issues in the study of the presidency
focuses on what really accounts for presidential decisions. Those who have an institutional perspective
believe that the president is no match for the political pressures of congress,
the political environment, and the American people. He responds to them in ways that try to
preserve his power by using his own institutional powers. Every president will
react roughly the same to the same institutional forces. The other perspective, often called the
persuasion or bargaining model, sees leadership of the president as the key
determinant of decisions. The president
matters -- his character, his leadership style, his
political skills.
This is the central point we should focus on: Is it
possible for a president to "succeed" in "modern" times?
What do I mean by "succeed?" It is best to take ideological judgments
out of the definition of success. We should not try to define success subjectively
-- in terms of individual political goals that those on one side or the other
of the political spectrum might have, such as reducing poverty through
government action or shrinking the size of the welfare state. Using these
notions as the judgment of success would lead to endless debate about the
purposes of government from a partisan point of view. We’ll probably have a
little bit of that, but we don't want it to dominate the course. It is better
to try for some scholarly objectivity, by defining success in the following
manner -- did the president achieve what he set out to do? Whether you, as an
individual, shared the goals of one president or another, is irrelevant to this
question. Analytically, the focus should be upon how successful was any president
in attaining the goals that he sets for himself.
By the "modern" presidency I refer to the
presidency as it has been defined since Franklin Roosevelt. It is FDR who, with
the help of national crises of the Depression and WW II, transformed the presidency
into the focus of power that it is today. He also raised expectations so high
that it is doubtful that any president can meet those expectations for any
length of time. Can the job be done? That is what we will focus on during the
course of the semester. We will examine the powers of the presidency, the men
who have held the office and the shifting demands that our political culture
places on both the office and the individual.
Some of the issues we will discuss include: The
Presidency and the Constitution; Presidential Character; The Roosevelt
Revolution; "The Personal Presidency;" Presidential Management
Styles; Bureaucracy, Organizations, and Presidential Power; The "Imperial
Presidency" and Foreign Policy; The White House Staff and its power; Watergate
and the abuse of power; The post-Watergate Presidency; The Reagan Revolution;
The President and the media; Presidential Campaigns; Expectations of the
President; Image making; Shifting Coalitions in Presidential Voting; Red and
Blue America; And more, other issues you might bring up.
Texts: You need to read them; you don't need to buy them.
There is a lot of reading for this course, but it is fun reading. I've tried to
keep the dry political science textbook style to a minimum. I've assigned mostly
journalistic accounts that are entertaining and educational.
The
books are available at the Virginia Book Company (intersection of Shafer and
Franklin) and the VCU Bookstore. Some of them may be found also at the large
chain bookstores in town (Borders, Barnes and Noble). You might find them there
at a discount. If anyone has problems getting access to the texts, for any
reason, let me know as soon as possible so you don't get too far behind in the
reading. You may find these texts other places; be sure you get an edition of
the text that includes everything that is in the edition I have assigned. Some
of these books have been placed on reserve.
Assigned
Texts:
Grading
System: Grades will be determined
through the following:
|
Exam
One |
March
8 |
30%
of the grade |
|
April
10 |
35%
of the grade |
|
|
Exam
Two |
May
3: 1:00-3:50, same room |
35%
of the grade |
How
do you calculate your grade? Use the percentages from the above table. So, if
you received the following grades, you would calculate your grades in the
following manner:
I
give you this very detailed formula for a number of reasons. You should never
be unaware of what your class average is. You can calculate it at any point in
the semester. If your grade is not what you'd like it to be, you should know,
and you should come see me about it. Please don’t wait to come to my office
hours until after the final exam and say then tell me that you're having
trouble in the class. It's too late at that point; there’s nothing that I’d be
able to do to help at that point. But
any time in the semester that you feel you are having trouble, or not doing as
well as you feel you should, come talk to me. During my office hours and by
appointment I am happy to talk to you about the class
Grading
scale: I use a typical scale: A = 90-100; B = 80-89; C = 70-79; D = 55-69.
Borderline grades are considered in the following manner.
·
If your grade is
69.5, 79.5, or 89.5 or higher, then you may be a candidate for a round up to
the higher grade (Notice those numbers in the sentence; do not ask for a higher
grade if your average is a 68 or 78 or 88 or lower; those are not borderline
averages).
·
You may become a
candidate if your grades are borderline and if your
grades have been going up during the semester.
·
That means that
if you are borderline, but your last exam is lower than the previous exams (you
are between a B and C, but your third exam is a C for example), you will
probably get the lower grade.
·
If you are
borderline, and your last exam is higher than the previous exams (you are
between a B and C, but your third exam is a B), you will probably get the
higher grade.
·
Another factor I
consider is the typical grade you receive. Let’s say we have three grades for
the class and two are grades of B and one is a C (bad day) and your average is
a 79.6, you are a candidate for receiving a B.
If you have three grades and two grades are grades of C and one is a
grade of B, you are probably not candidate for a round up to the next grade.
·
There is no extra
credit for this class. Please do not
ask.
One
more thing: The withdrawal date is March 23
EXAMS: The exams will be short answer and essay. One week
before the exam I will place a review sheet on line, linked to this
syllabus, below this paragraph. This review sheet should be used as your study
guide for the exam. The review sheet will include some terms that are from the
readings only, so that you can go back and review those items from the
readings. Once you have the review sheet, feel free to ask me questions about
the terms. This is the best way to study for the exam. If you understand the
terms on the review sheet, you can define each one and see how each one relates
to the larger concepts and issues we've discussed in class, you should do just
fine on the exam. The exams will consist of short answer/identifications and
one essay. I will give more details on the exams in class as we approach the
first exam.
Research Paper: Follow this link
for information. Paper Topics will
be chosen in consultation with me. Details can be found in the link above and I
will explain in class. The paper is due April 10. You may turn in an outline, rough draft,
partial paper, whatever, for review up until one week before the paper is due
(April 3). This is optional, just something
to help you out if you have questions. The following instructions are important.
Please pay attention to them. If you
don't you will wind up hurting your grade:
·
LATE PAPERS: The late penalty is
ten points per day, meaning that after class begins your paper, if a 95, is now
an 85, after two days it is a 75, after three it is a 65, and so on down to
zero.
Attendance and Class Behavior
First,
I will be passing out an attendance sheet each class period. I have noticed the past few semesters that
some students feel class attendance is optional. They feel that way until they get back their
first exam then they want to do extra credit to get their grade back up. The simple answer is: be there the first
time. Second, you may use computers in
class to take notes. However, that is
all you should be doing with your computer – taking notes. If you surf the web, check your facebook page or play Angry Birds etc, you will be
disrupting other students in the class.
They can see your computer. This
qualifies as the type of class behavior that can result in your removal from
the class.
COURSE AND RE
Week
1: January 16-20: Origins of the
Presidency
Rudalevige,
Chapters 1 and 2.
Brownstein,
Chapters 1 and 2.
Week
2: January 23-27: Pre-Modern
Presidency
Sloan,
Chapter 2, Chapter 4, pp. 66-82, and Chapter 5
Week
3 January 30-February 3: The
Roosevelt Legacy
Sloan, Chapters 7 and 9
Week
4: February 6-10: Management and
Leadership: Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK
Paper Topic Due, February 9
Sloan,
Chapter 11
Brownstein,
Chapter 3
Greenberg,
Preface and Chapter 1
Agendas,
Management, Advising PPT
Week 5: February 13-17: LBJ and the Power of Persuasion
Greenberg, Chapters 2 and 4
Week 6: February 20-24: Nixon’s Rise and Fall
Greenberg,
Chapters 6 and 8
Brownstein,
Chapter 6
Week 7: February 27-March 2:
The Post-Watergate, Post-Vietnam Presidency: Ford and Carter
Rudalevige,
Chapters 3 and 4
Week
8: March 5-9: The Reagan
Realignment
Exam 1:
March 8
Brownstein,
Chapter 4
Spring Break March 12-16 Have fun, but don’t do anything that we can watch on
the web next week.
Week
9: March 19-23: Reagan and the
Economic Context
Sloan,
Chapters 3, 4 (pp. 82-100), 6 and 8
March 23 is the Withdrawal
date for the class
Week
10: March 26-30: The Post-Reagan
Presidency
Sloan,
Chapters 10 and 12
Rudalevige,
Chapter 5
Bush
41 and Clinton: Party
Philosophy
Week
11: April 2-6: The Wacky 1990s
Last for turning in optional rough draft: April 3
Brownstein,
Chapter 5
Klein, Prologue and Chapters 1-3.
Week
12:April 9-13 : Bush 43 and Presidential Power
Research Paper due April 10
(at the beginning of class)
Klein, Chapter
4-8
Week
13: April 16-20: The Power of the
Crisis Presidency
Rudalevige,
Chapter 7
Brownstein,
Chapter 7
Week 14: April 23-27: From Bush to Obama
Brownstein,
Chapter 8
Todd
and Gawiser, Introduction and at least four
descriptions of each type of state
Week 15: May 1: The Recession Presidency
Brownstein,
Chapter 9 and 10
Exam
2: May 3 1:00-3:50, same room; note the time change
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