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Syllabus for the American Presidency (POLS 4111) for Fall, 2013
Dr. Douglas Young
Office: 148 Loyd Strickland/Academic II Building; 678-717-3872; douglas.young@ung.edu
Faculty web site: http://www.gsc.edu/facstaff/Pages/FacultyWebPages.aspx
“GSC Politically Incorrect Club” on Facebook
“GSC Chessclub” on Facebook
Office Hours: Mondays Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays Fridays
10-11 10-11 10-11 10-11 10-11
2:15-40 1:15-2 2:15-40 1:15-2
4-5 3:15-5 4-5 3:15-5
Course Description: This course studies the U.S. presidency in terms of its evolution, roles, policies, elections, personalities, advisers, bureaucracy, controversies, and cultural status.
Required Readings:
-Stephen J. Wayne’s The Road to the White House 2012 , ninth edition, 2013 paperback
-Richard Neustadt’s Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of
Leadership , 1990 paperback
-Nassir Ghaemi’s A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental
Illness , 2013 paperback
Grading Scale for all class work: A: 90-100; B: 80-90; C: 70-80; D: 60-70; F: below 60
Course Requirements/Grades:
First Test: 25 percent of your final course grade Third Test: 25 percent
Second Test: 25 percent Research Paper: 25 percent
So, at the end of the term, 360 points earns an A, 320 points earns a B, 280 points earns a C, 240 points earns a D, and below 240 points earns an F for the course.
Tests: Please bring a pen for each test. You will have one hour and 25 minutes to take each of the first two tests and two hours for the third (final exam). Each test covers about a third of the course lectures and assigned readings.
On each test you will write three 30-point essays and two five-point short answers. Each test will also have at least 10 one-point fill-in-the-blank extra credit questions derived from material in the assigned readings not discussed in class.
Make-up Tests: If you miss a test, you must PROMPTLY justify your absence. Written documentation from your doctor, hospital, etc. is strongly preferred for Dr. Young to decide if you can take a make-up test. If the absence is unjustified, your test grade is O. ONLY if Dr.
Young decides the absence was absolutely unavoidable can you take a make-up test as soon as possible on your FIRST day back on campus.
Research Paper: A class early this semester will detail all this project’s requirements. Here are the most important.
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*Write about any approved topic related to the U.S. presidency. State a thesis and use your research and analysis to prove whatever case you wish to make about the presidency. Choose a subject that excites you and about which you want to read, learn, think, and write. A microscopic sampling of worthy topics includes:
-a constitutional issue concerning the presidency in the past and/or present
-a Founding Father’s vision of the presidency and to what extent it has/not been fulfilled
-a feature of presidential elections or one candidate’s campaign or one aspect of it
-one policy or aspect of any particular president’s administration
-an analysis of some factor, event, crisis, or policy affecting a presidential role’s evolution
-one president’s impact on shaping a presidential role or some feature of the office
-presidential relations with Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court, the press, the public, etc.
-how one or more American presidents have impacted the rest of the world
-contrasting a pair of presidents in terms of how they addressed the same challenge or issue
-a proposal to reform or improve the presidency
-a case study of a president handling a crisis, event, problem, issue, public policy, or scandal
-exploring the presidential pull of one or more cabinet secretaries or White House advisers
-studying the impact of a voter group, interest group, or agency on one or more presidents
-examining the influence of the press or one news media outlet on one or more presidents
-studying how important a president’s party or political ideology is in predicting his policies
-showing how a president succeeded or failed to pass a particular bill in Congress
-illustrating how a president succeeded or failed to get re-elected
-psychologically profiling one or more presidents
-judging a president’s legacy in terms of his entire White House record or one policy
-studying public attitudes about the presidency and how and why they have evolved
-scrutinizing the presidency in American popular culture
-examining the post-White House life and influence of one or more presidents
*The deadline to present your detailed proposed topic outline to discuss with Dr. Young during his office hours is Thursday, September 16 .
*The deadline to turn in your first draft of the paper is Tuesday, October 24 .
*The deadline to turn in your final draft is Tuesday, November 7 .
*The paper must be at least 10 full, double-spaced, typed pages in Times New Roman 12 font with a one-inch margin on all four sides.
*The paper must have at least five scholarly sources (academic or highly regarded books on the presidency, academic journal articles – print or on line – and no more than five non-academic magazines, newspapers, or web sites).
*Write in complete sentences in formal paragraph essay style.
*Footnote all quoted material.
*At the absolute most, there should be no more than eight lines of quoted material in the paper.
Class Attendance: Woody Allen: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
A solid record of punctual regular class attendance will go a long way in determining borderline (79+, 89+) grades at the end of the semester.
You alone are responsible for getting class notes for any class you miss.
Barring a legitimate emergency, a student can leave class early only if he has received Dr.
Young’s permission before the period began.
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Taping of classes is not allowed without Dr. Young’s permission pursuant to receiving documented proof of a student’s relevant learning disability. The contents of Dr. Young’s lectures are solely the legal intellectual property of Dr. Young.
No beepers, cell phones, or texting are allowed in Dr. Young’s class without his permission. http://ung.edu/academic-affairs/policies-and-guidelines/supplemental-syllabus.php
Because an essential element in any well-rounded college education consists of students being exposed to and challenged by competing perspectives, a wide variety of controversial subject matter will be discussed openly in a free and frank manner consistent with academic freedom protected by the Free Expression Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. Therefore, anyone easily offended and/or opposed to freedom of speech should
NOT take this class.
Academic Honesty: Cheating on any test or project will result in a O for that grade.
Severe Weather Policy: In the event of snow, freezing rain, or the wrath of God, listen to WDUN
(550 AM) or WSB (750 AM) to learn if UNG wimped out and canceled class.
Withdrawals: Withdrawing by the midterm earns a final grade of W (withdrawn, no F). After that, absent documented extraordinary personal difficulties, you get a WF (withdrawn, failing).
Questions and Difficulties: Please ask me questions about any aspect of the class at any time.
To avoid losing points for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling flaws on your tests and papers:
Spell every word correctly.
Write in complete sentences.
Make sure you have subject-verb agreement in every sentence.
Write in paragraphs, but not one-sentence ones since none of us is Ernest Hemingway.
Do not turn in a full-page paragraph because none of us is William Faulkner, either.
Do not use abbreviations, except for “etc.”
Write out and, because, with, and within -- do not use the informal symbols.
Spell out a number if it is below 10, like one, two, three, etc.
Use Arabic when using a double-digit number like 10, 11, 12, etc.
Spell out any number that is the first word of a sentence.
Avoid contractions like don’t, can’t, won’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t, it’s, we’d, you’d, etc.
“Alot” is not a word.
Do not end sentences with prepositions: in, on, of, by, for, with, within, into, under, etc.
Write 95 percent, not 95%.
Do not write “I feel.” Since this is an intellectual exercise, I think, believe, contend, etc.
Profanity, crude language, and their abbreviations are unacceptable in academic prose.
“Lol,” “smh,” and other informal writing is also inappropriate in academic writing.
Get right to your point. Do not waste time restating a test question. I know it since I wrote it.
Do not go off on tangents that are irrelevant to the test question or your research paper’s topic.
Write legibly on tests. If I cannot understand your writing, I will not read it.
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STUDY GUIDE
The genesis of the U.S. presidency
-1787 constitutional creation -competing conceptions of the office among Founding Fathers
-the Jeffersonian/Madisonian vision -the Hamiltonian vision
Presidents who shaped the office and transformed its roles: -George Washington (1789-97)
-Thomas Jefferson (1801-9) -Andrew Jackson (1829-37) -James Polk (1845-9)
-Abraham Lincoln (1861-5) -Grover Cleveland (1885-9, 1893-7)
-Theodore Roosevelt/T.R. (1901-9) -Woodrow Wilson (1913-21)
-Calvin Coolidge (1923-9) -Franklin Roosevelt/FDR (1933-45) **-read Neustadt text
-Harry Truman (1945-53) -Dwight Eisenhower/Ike (1953-61)
-John Kennedy/JFK (1961-3) -Lyndon Johnson/LBJ (1963-9) -Richard Nixon (1969-74)
-Jimmy Carter (1977-81) -Ronald Reagan (1981-9)
-George Bush I (1989-93) -Bill Clinton (1993-2001) -George Bush II (2001-9)
-Barack Obama (2009- )
Presidential elections -PLEASE READ THE WAYNE TEXTBOOK
-the electoral college: -constitutional basis -its evolution, especially since the 1820s
-controversies (elections in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000) -the case for the college
-the case against it -proposed reforms
-presidential election campaigns: -nomination -“boss rule” -post-1968 primaries
-summer conventions -fall general election campaign
Presidential Roles -PLEASE READ THE NEUSTADT TEXTBOOK
-Commander-in-Chief
-what the U.S. Constitution says -the war power -presidential precedents expand the role
-Washington -Jefferson -Jackson -Polk and the 1846-7 Mexican-American War
-Lincoln’s 1861-5 War Between the States -Theodore Roosevelt’s “Big Stick Diplomacy”
-Wilson and World War I -Franklin Roosevelt and World War II
-Truman and the Cold War and the 1950-3 Korean War -the 1945-90 Cold War
-Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and the 1961-73 Vietnam War -1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution
-1973 Eagleton Amendment -1973 War Powers Resolution -the Reagan resurgence
-post-Cold War Era after 1990 -Bush I and the 1991 Iraq War
-Bush II’s 2001- Afghan and 2003-11 Iraq Wars -Obama’s Afghan and Iraq Wars
-post-9/11/01 War on Islamic Terrorism waged by Bush II and Obama
-National Security Council (NSC) -Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)
-congressional bipartisan support for presidents’ foreign policies, especially post-WWII
-the U.S. Supreme Court endorses the dramatic growth of the commander-in-chief role
-giving Lincoln a pass -upholding Wilson’s Espionage and Sedition Acts
-okaying FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans
-press treatment of presidents as wartime leaders -usually strong public support
-“the imperial presidency”? -Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.’s thesis on Johnson and Nixon
-a much weakened presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War: -Gerald Ford -Carter
-a major resurgence of presidential war powers under Reagan, Bush I and II, and Obama
-the thesis that the post-9/11/01 presidency is too imperial and militaristic
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-U.S. drone strikes -intelligence revelations -the ever-larger national security state
-Chief Diplomat: -Founding Fathers’ intent -America becomes a 20 th century world power
-treaty-making: -Wilson’s 1919 Versailles Treaty -Nixon’s 1972 SALT I
-Carter’s 1979 SALT II -Reagan’s 1988 INF -Bush I’s 1991 START I & 1993 START II
-treaty-breaking: Goldwater v. Carter (1980)
-executive agreements -executive privilege: U.S
. v. Nixon (1974)
-intelligence agencies: -Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
-National Security Agency (NSA) -National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
-congressional restraints on presidential power as chief diplomat
-isolationism v. interventionism among the American people throughout our history
-Chief Executive: -growing presidential responsibilities, strengths, and weaknesses in the role
-competing management styles: -FDR’s many tracks -Eisenhower’s strong chief of staff
-Polk and Carter as micro-managers -Reagan and Bush II as delegators
-naming federal judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices: “the real prize of the presidency”
-Jefferson -Jackson -Lincoln -FDR -Eisenhower -Carter -Reagan
-competing federal bureaucracies -Treasury, State, and Defense Departments
-Justice Department: -Attorney General -Civil Rights Office
-FBI history -FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s 1924-72 reign -post-Hoover Era
-Legislative Leader: -growing expectations, strengths, and weaknesses of the role -vetoes
-1921 Budget & Accounting Act -economic manager since the 1930s’ Great Depression
-the most successful legislative leader presidents and their winning tactics
-FDR -LBJ -Wilson -T.R. –Reagan
-less successful legislative leader presidents and their mistakes
-JFK -Carter -Bush I
-a legislative case study: the 2010 Affordable Healthcare Act/“Obamacare”
-Chief of State: -contrasting role models: -regal glamour: -JFK -Reagan
-more informal: -Carter -Clinton
-Political Party leader: -the great coalition-builder (FDR) -“above the fray” (Eisenhower)
-“the Southern Strategy” (Nixon) -bringing back much of the South (Carter and Clinton)
-“firing up the base” (Bush II and Obama)
-presidents running for re-election
-winning formulas: -FDR -Truman -Eisenhower -Nixon -Reagan -Clinton -Obama
-losing formulas: -Hoover -Carter -Bush I
-presidential advisers -vice presidents and their contrasting and evolving role
-traditionally almost irrelevant: -FDR’s Truman -Ike’s Nixon -JFK’s LBJ
-LBJ’s Hubert Humphrey -Nixon’s Spiro Agnew -Ford’s Nelson Rockefeller
-recently major: -Carter’s Walter Mondale -Clinton’s Al Gore -Bush II’s Dick Cheney
-major secretaries of state: -Washington’s Jefferson -James Monroe’s John Quincy Adams
-Lincoln’s William Seward -William McKinley’s John Hay
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-Warren Harding’s Charles Evans Hughes -Truman’s George Marshall and Dean Acheson
-Eisenhower’s John Foster Dulles -Nixon and Ford’s Henry Kissinger
-Reagan’s George Shultz -Bush I’s James Baker -Bush II’s Condoleeza Rice
-major treasury secretaries: -Washington’s Alexander Hamilton -Reagan’s James Baker
-major war/defense secretaries: -Lincoln’s Edwin Stanton -Reagan’s Casper Weinberger
-Bush I’s Dick Cheney
-major national security advisers: -Kennedy and Johnson’s McGeorge Bundy
-Nixon’s Henry Kissinger -Carter’s Zbigniew Brzezinski -Bush I’s Brent Scowcroft
-unofficial advisers: -Wilson’s Colonel House
-“Kitchen Cabinet”s: -Jackson -Kennedy -Johnson -Reagan
-the most influential First Ladies: -Mrs. John Adams -Mrs. Polk -Mrs. T.R.
-Mrs. Wilson -Mrs. FDR -Mrs. Reagan -Mrs. Clinton -Mrs. Obama?
-the presidency and the press
-changing roles of the news media -18 th
and 19 th
century partisan scandal sheet newspapers
-largely deferential press for the bulk of the 20 th century: -FDR -JFK
-rise of “the big three” major TV networks in the 1950s and 1960s: CBS, NBC, ABC
-a far more aggressive press by the late 1960s and 1970s with the Vietnam War and Watergate
-CNN (1980) -CNBC (1989) -Bloomberg (1994) -MSNBC (1996) -FOX (1996)
-press biases? -a far more deferential press under Obama?
-a far more ideologically polarized press since the 1990s? -talk radio -the internet
-the presidency and the people: -T.R.’s “bully pulpit” -FDR’s “fireside chats” on the radio
-Reagan’s TV addresses -the never-ending election campaign?
-Obama and social media (on line, Twitter, Facebook)
-the presidency in popular culture: -in the press -literature -radio -films -TV -internet
-presidential personality profiles: -PLEASE READ THE GHAEMI TEXTBOOK
-James David Barber: active-positive, active-negative, passive-positive, passive-negative
-case studies: -Lincoln and depression (Joshua Shenk’s
Lincoln’s Melancholy: How
Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
-Nassir Ghaemi’s A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between
Leadership and Mental Illness )
-Theodore Roosevelt and manic depression? (Ghaemi)
-Wilson and obsessive-compulsive disorder (Alexander & Juliette George’s Woodrow
Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study )
-major physical health problems: -William Taft (high blood pressure via morbid obesity)
-Wilson (major stroke) -Eisenhower (heart attack) -Reagan (gunshot, cancer)
-JFK’s Addison’s Disease, back pain, and many powerful drugs (Ghaemi)
-was LBJ paranoid? (Doris K. Goodwin’s LBJ & the American Dream )
-was Nixon? -yes: Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein’s The Final Days
-no: Ghaemi
-the impact of extreme and prolonged stress: Polk, Lincoln (Shenk and Ghaemi)
Taft, Wilson (the Georges), FDR (Ghaemi), LBJ (Goodwin), Nixon (Ghaemi),
Bush II (Ghaemi) -the apparent rapid aging of so many presidents during their terms
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-FDR -Ike -Carter -Bush II -Obama
-Has the presidency become too powerful? -Or not powerful enough for today’s challenges?
-differing roles of ex-presidents, especially as they start to survive the presidency by decades:
-traditional/quietly deferential: -Truman -Gerald Ford -Reagan -Bush I -Bush II
-elder statesman serving when asked: -Taft -Hoover -Eisenhower -Bush I -Clinton
-hidden adviser: -Nixon
-vocal critic of his successors: -Theodore Roosevelt -Carter
-remaining a major political player: -Theodore Roosevelt -Clinton
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