Political Science 308 United States Presidency
Section 001
T/TH 12:30-1:45, Harris 2138
Fall 2023
Bill Newmann
Office Hours: 318 Founder’s Hall (827 W. Franklin St): Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:30, or by appointment, and zoom appointments too.
E-mail: wnewmann@vcu.edu;
Newmann's home page with links to other course syllabi (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~wnewmann)
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Syllabus Policy Statements
POLI 308. U.S. Presidency.
3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3
credits. A political and institutional study of the chief executive, focusing
especially on the presidential personality and relations with Congress, the
bureaucracy, the courts and the shaping of domestic and foreign policy.
Structure of the Class
This course will be taught in
class, the old-fashioned pre-pandemic way.
In addition, all lectures will be recorded and placed in the Media
Gallery of the Canvas site. They will
also be linked to the syllabus online.
The recorded lectures will be available within 24 hours of the class. I do this because even though we’re trying to
get back to normal, the health situation is not back to normal; for that
reason, I will be providing the recordings for people who are uncomfortable in
a small classroom.
Exams will
be in the classroom during the scheduled class period (unless other
arrangements are necessary due to SAEO provisions). Please talk to me if this presents health
complications for you.
Links to the Presidency that will
be useful or interesting (some might even be both).
Polls and Sites
with Electoral College Charts
·
Real
Clear Politics Poll tracking
·
Washington Post
polling page
·
Wall
Street Journal/NBC news polls
The American National Election Studies (ANES) is a scholarly database
with everything. You need to register to use it (just info; no cost), and then
create a password. There is a ton here,
so it may require some playing around to find what you’re looking for.
Use These for References to Voting in this election
and past elections
·
270 to Win
(info on presidential elections)
·
Dave
Leip’s Atlas of US Presidential Elections The best info on every US presidential
election and more
Sites with Coverage from All Perspectives
·
Real Clear Politics links to articles from everywhere
·
Politico
comprehensive coverage of political
events
Possibly
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 Annenberg Center at the University
of Pennsylvania
·
PolitiFact.com From several newspapers
·
The Fact Checker From the Washington Post
·
Snopes.com (fact checking and debunking
urban legends and internet hoaxes that are often about politics)
Reference
·
Statistical
Abstract of the United States (US Census Bureau compilation of statistics on social and
economic conditions in the US)
·
Gallup
Presidential Approval Ratings
Introduction
The presidency is a huge topic. Recognizing this reality, 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 institution -- the office and powers of the office as it has evolved from the US Constitution to the media-focused, celebrity presidency of the 1980s and 1990s; and (3) the individual -- 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.
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 seem to depend on the national mood.
We’re studying politics in this class, but we want to approach it as scholars, not as partisans – supporters of any specific political party or ideology. In this sense, when we think of how to judge a president or presidency, 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? Did the president improve the quality of US democracy? 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, and of upholding and protecting the constitution.
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.
We, of course, will look at how the last few presidencies operated (Bush 43, Obama, and Trump), and we’ll also spend a lot of time examining how President Trump shattered some of the established norms of the presidency.
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 the Trump Phenomenon.
We will also spend some time looking at the current crisis in American Democracy. In the long run, presidential power has been expanding in ways that are often seen as detrimental to the checks and balances built into the system. In essence, some think we are evolving into a system where congressional oversight disappears and presidential authority is unchallenged. President Trump challenged or obliterated long standing norms in American politics, both in terms of the tone of presidential communication and the limits to presidential power. As he repeatedly said: Article 2 allows him to do whatever he wants, and gives him “total authority.” That is terrifying. The fundamental nature of democracy rejects total authority by anyone at any time. Only dictators or monarchs have total authority. Our extreme polarization has led us to a critical juncture. If we evolve into a system where parties believe that presidents from their own party can have absolute power, while presidents of the opposition party can have no power, we are no longer a functioning democracy. I can’t emphasize enough the crisis we are facing. A majority of the members of the current Republican Party believe that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democratic Party and that Biden is not legally president. This is absolutely 100% false, but they still believe it. The certification by congress of the 2020 election was disrupted by a violent riot, during which protestors attacked and invaded the Capitol Building in search of members of congress they verbally threatened to kill. Read that sentence again, and think about that. The refusal to accept the outcome of an election and an armed attempt to stop the transfer of power are two of the hallmarks of the death of the democratic process in a country. Our continued ability to hold elections and transfer power peacefully is at risk. By the end of the semester, you’ll know multiple perspectives on how we got to this unstable era in American history. It is possible that scholars writing fifty years from now might label this era “the collapse of the first American Republic.” This is what keeps me up at night. I apologize for sharing my nightmare.
Learning
Outcomes
1. Students will be able to differentiate between and evaluate approaches to studying the presidency, particularly the historical, institutional, and character.
2.
Students
will be able to differentiate between and evaluate theories of the pre-modern,
modern, and post-modern presidencies.
3.
Students
will be able to evaluate the evolution of presidential power, in the context of
American history, tools of presidential persuasion, and the relationships
between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches
4.
Students
will be able to evaluate the impact of significant presidencies, in terms of
both successes and failures in presidential leadership
5.
Students
will be able to evaluate the relationship between political realignment and the
presidency, particularly in the context of coalition formation and ideological
change within the US and within US political parties.
6.
Students
will be able to evaluate the evolution of presidential economic policy and its
central role in shaping the politics of the nation
7.
Students
will demonstrate the ability to research and write a paper for political
science
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 and the VCU Bookstore and BookHolders,. Some of them may be found also at the large chain
bookstores in town (Barnes and Noble) or online through the VCU library system
(see links below). 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. I
will place books on reserve as well, and let you know when that is done.
Assigned Texts:
·
Fred
I. Greenstein. Inventing the Job of
President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson (Princeton University Press, 2014) Available
online through the VCU Library: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vcu/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=729943
·
Doris
Kearns Goodwin. Leadership in Turbulent Times (New York:
Simon and Shuster, 2019)
·
Chris
Whipple. The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs
of Staff Define Every Presidency (New York: Broadway Books, 2018)
·
Harold Holzer. The
Presidents vs. The Press (New York: Dutton, 2021)
·
Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes. The Unmaking of the Presidency: Donald Trump’s
War on the World’s Most Powerful Office (New York: Picador, 2021)
Grading System: Grades will be determined through
the following:
|
Exam One |
October 12 |
30% of the grade |
|
Initial Due Date: September
19 Final Due Date: October 26 |
5% of the grade |
|
|
Rough drafts
accepted until October 26 (optional) November 2: due
at the beginning of class in hard copy or emailed to me by the beginning of
class. |
30% of the grade |
|
|
Exam Two |
December 12: 12:30-3:20 in the regular
classroom |
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 October 27.
EXAMS:
Right
now, I’m unsure about the format of the exam.
I’m having some health issues which may make grading especially
difficult this semester. As soon as I know what format I’ll use, I’ll let you
know. You’ll have plenty of lead time to prepare for the style of the exam. It
will be either short answer and essay, or all short answers, with a small
possibility of multiple-choice questions in the mix.
At least one week before the exam I will out a review sheet online. It will be linked to the syllabus below this paragraph. In general, the review sheets 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.
Citation
Assignment
I
will explain this the first day of class and you can follow this link to get
the detailed instructions. This is a super easy assignment, but it will
give you some research skills that will be essential to writing research papers
in upper-level classes like this one.
The basic idea is this: you will write a basic paragraph that is
designed to help you practice citing material and writing a bibliography. See the initial due date in the course and
reading schedule below. If you do it right, you’re
done, and you get a 100% on the grade. If you do it
wrong, you’ll be asked to do it again based on my comments. You’ll keep working
on it until you’ve got it right. There
is, however, a final deadline (October 26). If you haven’t done it right by
then (and this can only happen if you don’t even try), you’ll get a zero. For the initial due date this assignment is
due at the beginning of class in hard copy.
There is a ten-point penalty for each day it is late with a maximum of a
50% penalty. If it is not completed
correctly by the final due date, the grade is a zero (and nobody wants that;
I’ll be sad; you’ll be sad). The
benefit of this is that you’ll learn to do citations correctly before the paper
is due. That means you’ll do the citations correctly on the paper. Hooray. That’s very good because the main reason
students get grades of C or D on a paper is because they didn’t do their
citations correctly.
Research
Paper: The full assignment is linked right here.
The topic is an assigned topic, but you have lots of leeway about how you want
to approach it. Your assignment should be fun or maybe scary: Explain the Trump
Phenomenon: How has Donald Trump captured the loyalty of the Republican Party
in ways that no American politician ever has?
Some basics:
Stuff:
The following are
some fun or useful PPT slideshows. Take
a look if you’re interested. They are not required; none of the material will
be on a test.
Being a Good Political Consumer
Presidential Library Tour
COURSE AND READING SCHEDULE
Week 1: August 21-25: Introduction
· Greenstein, Chapters 1-4, and 8
· Holzer, Chapters 1-3
· Read the Constitution
o Official US Government Printing Office version
o National Archives original text annotated version (with links to changes in the constitution)
· Lecture 1: August 22 Introduction
· Lecture 2 August 24 Intro to the Presidency 1
Week 2: August 28--September 1: Powers of
the Presidency
· Goodwin, Chapters 1 and 5 and 9
·
Electoral
College to January 6 PPT
·
Lecture
3 August 29 Intro to the Presidency 2
·
Lecture
4 August 31 Intro to the Presidency 3
Week 3: September 4-8: The Pre-Modern Presidency
·
Goodwin,
Chapters 2, 6, and 10
·
Lecture
5 September 5 Intro to the Presidency 4 (Electoral College)
·
Lecture
6 September 7 Intro to the Presidency 5 (Electoral College – January 6)
Week 4: September 11-15 FDR: The Modern Presidency Begins
· Goodwin, Chapters 3, 7, and 11
·
Lecture
7 September 12 January 6 and Trump Indictments
·
Lecture
8 September 14 Pre-Modern Presidents
Week 5: September 18-22: FDR to Ike
·
September 19: Citation Assignment First Draft
Due (at the beginning of class in hard copy or emailed by the start of class)
· Holzer, Chapters 6, 8, 9, and 10
·
FDR PPT
·
Lecture
9 September 19 TR and FDR
Week 6: September 25-29: Ike to JFK to LBJ
·
Goodwin,
Chapters 4, 8, and 12
· Leadership, Management, Advising PPT
·
Lecture
11 September 26 FDR 2
·
Lecture
12 September 28 Eisenhower
Week 7: October 2-6: LBJ and the Power of Persuasion
· Whipple, Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2 (For 2nd Exam)
· Holzer, Chapter 12 (For 2nd Exam)
·
LBJ
PPT
·
Lecture
13 October 3 JFK and LBJ 1
Week 8: October 9-13: Exam One
· Exam One: October 12:
· No Readings
Week 9: October 16-20: Nixon’s Rise and Fall
· Whipple, Chapters 3 and 4
· Holzer, Chapter 13
·
Lecture
17 October 19 Nixon, and Watergate
Week 10: October 23-27: The Reagan Realignment
·
Optional rough drafts accepted until October
26
· Final Due Date for Citation Assignment October 26
· Whipple, Chapters 5 and 6
· Holzer, Chapter 14
·
Post-Watergate
Presidency PPT
·
Lecture
18 October 24 Nixon and Watergate
·
Lecture
19 October 26 Post-Watergate Presidency
Withdrawal Date
October 27
Week 11:
October 30-November 3: Bush,
Clinton, and the Changes of the 1990s
·
November
2: Paper Due, at the beginning of class in hard copy or emailed to me by the
beginning of class.
· Holzer, Chapter 15
·
Lecture
20 October 31 Reagan 1
·
Lecture
21 November 2 Reagan 2
Week 12: November 6-10: Clinton to GW Bush
·
No class November 7: VOTE!
Because the people who believe that the earth is flat will be voting and you
don’t want them deciding the future of the US.
Vote because you wouldn’t want your parents picking out your clothes or
you ordering your dinner. Why let them decide the future of the nation?
· Whipple, Chapter 7 and 8
· Hennessey and Wittes, Chapter 2
·
Lecture
22 November 9 Reagan to Bush
Week
13: November 13-17: GW Bush to Obama
·
Whipple Chapter 9
·
Holzer, Chapter 17
·
Hennessey and Wittes,
Chapters 3, and 4
· Bush 43
·
Lecture
23 November 14 Bush to Clinton
·
Lecture
24 November 16 Clinton
Fall Break: November 20-24
Week
14: November 27—December 1: Trump and the Challenge to US Democracy
·
Holzer,
Chapter 18
·
Hennessey
and Wittes Chapters 5 and 7
·
Lecture
25 November 28 Clinton to Bush
·
Lecture
26 November 30 GW Bush
Week 15: December 4-8: Trump, Biden, and the Current Crisis
·
Last Day of Class: Thursday December 7
·
Hennessey and Wittes,
Chapter 8, 9, Conclusion, and Postscript
·
Obama
Final Exam: December 12: 12:30—3:20
Other Important
Stuff
Political Science Advising
If you are a Political Science major, we highly recommend that you
meet with your friendly and helpful POLI advisors, Nathan Bickett
and Jen Clayton, at least once a semester to make sure you are on track - doing
what you need to do and not doing what you don’t need to do - and to discuss
your academic and professional goals. Current minors and those considering a
POLI major or minor are also encouraged to visit.
You may make an appointment through the Navigator app or through a
link on your VCU Portal (remote advising webpage). You may also reach us at poliadvisor@vcu.edu
Political Science Librarian
Nia Rodgers is the librarian for Political
Science. She can help you find peer-reviewed materials to use in your research.
She can be reached at: slrodgers@vcu.edu
or you can make an appointment at: https://vcu.libcal.com/appointment/8778
Students should visit http://go.vcu.edu/syllabus and review all syllabus statement information. The full university syllabus statement includes information on safety, registration, the VCU Honor Code, student conduct, withdrawal and more.