PS 310
Fall 2008
Final Review Sheet
The final will have 6 short answer questions and two longer essay questions.
Short answer questions will be drawn from the questions below.
I reserve the right to include questions from the first half of the class, though the
emphasis will be on the following:
Press and the President
What is framing? Priming? How does the media affect public opinion? How do trends in
the business of news affect the news coverage of the president? What are some ways in
which the president tries to control the media? To what degree can the media serve as a
check on presidential power?
Public Opinion
How do people form opinions about the president’s job performance? What are approval
ratings really measuring? Why is public approval important to the president? In what
ways is it a resource? A Constraint? What is Going Public? How does Kernell argue
Washington has changed over time? What are institutionalized and individualized
pluralism? Why is Going Public a more common strategy today than it used to be? Is
public opinion more of a resource for presidents now than it used to be? How can
presidents manipulate public opinion?
Rally Effects
What is a rally effect? What circumstances give rise to one? What advantages does a
president gain by focusing his attention on international rather than domestic affairs? Do
presidents face fewer constraints during a perceived crisis? If so, why?
Congress
What are the president’s legislative powers, according to the Constitution? What are his
informal legislative powers? What are Congress’ constitutional powers? In what ways is
Congress on equal footing with the president? In what ways does Congress dominate
lawmaking? Who has the upper hand in legislative negotiations? How does public
opinion affect those negotiations? When is a president more likely to be successful in his
negotiations with Congress? Is the passage of major legislation affected by divided
government? When will we see Congress and the President compromise? When will we
see them fail to compromise? Define the following terms: half a loaf, veto bait, unified
government, successive approximations.
Impeachment
What are the Constitutional provisions respecting impeachment? What did the Framers
think about when deciding on that language? What are the three cases of impeachment?
Of the three crises described in the Pfiffner piece, which is the most egregious? Which is
the least? Why? Is the cover-up worse than the original action? What distinguishes
Nixon’s actions from those of other presidents who did or did not face impeachment? Is
the impeachment process a tool that Congress can use against all presidents who deserve
it? Or does it require specific a political environment or specific type of violation to be
effective?
War Powers
How did the framers design the president’s and Congress’ constitutional war powers?
How did early presidents conceive of the president’s war powers? Of Congress’ war
powers? How did they interpret the commander-in-chief clause? Describe an example of
early presidential use of war powers. How do modern presidents conceive of the
president’s war powers? Of Congress’ war powers? Why did that change in interpretation
take place? What role do modern international institutions play in our domestic war
powers disputes? What did the UN Participation Act say? What was the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution? What examples of modern uses of war powers are most memorable to you?
Does the War Powers Resolution empower or constrain the president? Did Congress have
enough input in the decision to go to war in Iraq? What are some examples of presidents’
use of prerogative power in wartime? How would you evaluate President Bush’s uses of
wartime power?
Executive Branch
How does Congress make it hard for the president to control the bureaucracy? Why does
Moe think that the president is in a better position to control the bureaucracy than
Congress is? What is bureaucratic capture? The Senior Executive Service? How has the
president’s ability to control the bureaucracy, both through budgeting and regulatory
oversight, changed over time? Why might it be important for the president to have his
own staff? What are the three strategies that the President can use to control the
bureaucracy? What advantages and disadvantages to the president, and to the system at
large, come with a large presidential bureaucracy? Is the cabinet currently a resource for
the president? Are his White House advisers assets to him? How do presidents weigh
loyalty vs. competence? Which side do they usually take? How do presidential
management techniques differ? Is there one that you think is best?
Why do presidents take unilateral action? Are there reasons why or ways in which they
should not take unilateral action? What are Executive Orders? How are they different
from Presidential Memoranda, Proclamations, and National Security Directives? What is
the Federal Administrative Procedures Act? What are Signing Statements and what is
controversial about them? Was Bush’s signing statement on the torture bill a legitimate
use of presidential power?
Judiciary
In what ways is the judiciary independent of the president? In what ways is it shaped by
him? In what ways does the President have the upper hand over the judiciary?
Terms/cases you should be able to briefly describe: Court packing, Worcester v. Georgia,
Ex parte Merryman, US v. Nixon, Marbury vs. Madison, Mississippi vs. Johnson, US v.
Curtiss Wright Export Corporation, Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer, Zone of
Twilight, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Executive privilege
Informal Constraints
What does Greenstein think of Eisenhower’s skill as a leader? What do you think? What
are the six elements of what he calls “hidden hand leadership?” What do you think of his
strategy of hidden hand leadership? What would you think if Bill Clinton or George W.
Bush employed the same strategy? What would the press think?
What presidential personal qualities did we discuss? What, according to that list, are Bill
Clinton’s strengths and weaknesses? How did Bill Clinton’s personal characteristics
affect his presidency? What are George W. Bush’s personal strengths and weaknesses?
How did his personal characteristics affect his presidency?
Which do you think is a more important determinant of presidential success: the
president’s personality or his political environment? Describe Skowronek’s theory of
Political Time. What are regimes? What are the characteristics of reconstructive,
preemptive, articulator, and disjunctive presidents? Where does George W. Bush fall in
political time? How should we make that determination? What in the political
environment constrained the last five presidents? What in the political environment
empowered them? How might we critique Skowronek’s argument?
Is there such a thing as a great president? Who would you rate as the best president of all
time? On what basis do you make that decision? How do you think the future judgment
of history affects a president’s thinking?
Comparative Executives
How powerful is the American president compared to the executives in other
democracies? What are the relative strengths of a president in a separated system? What
are the relative strengths of a prime minister in a parliamentary system?
Terms: Westminster system, Prime minister in a PR system