Office: UC 537
Telephone: 422-6296
E-mail: johnsonr@usfca.edu
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How timely it is to be studying the American presidency during an election year. This course will allow us to read about and reflect on the election process, and will also introduce students to the institution, the politics, and the power of the American presidency. The reading assignments will come from the books, Louis Koenig, The Chief Executive, and James Barber, The Presidential Character, and from supplementary readings. The Koenig book offers a solid background of factual information about the office, the Barber book gives us a framework for evaluating the personality and character of the President, and the other reading assignments provide other approaches and perspectives from a variety of experts in the field.
The course itself is divided into four sections: (1) the institutional framework, (2) engaging the public, (3) getting elected, and (4) governing. In the first part of the course, we focus on the institutional framework of the office, starting with Philadelphia and the framers of the Constitution, and including impeachment. The second section focuses on the character, the morality and the personality of the President and his ability to inspire and engage the public. The third section focuses on presidential elections and is designed to coincide with current campaign activities. And part four focuses on the actual governing experience of the President as executive, as party leader, as legislative leader, and as chief diplomat and commander-in-chief.
Students will be expected to read assigned material before coming to class. Students are expected to attend class regularly, to participate in class discussion, to prepare written and oral reports on time, and to fully participate in the class project, "got politics?"
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Political cartoons are an American staple. Here is an example: an anti-Andrew Jackson cartoon from the campaign of 1800.
The grade for the course will be based on the following:
Quiz: 10%
Impeachment Debate: 10%
Class Participation: 10%
Class Project: 20%
Final Paper: 50%
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Reform Party Summer 2000
Aug. 29 Introduction to the course
Philadelphia and the Framers
Introduction to the Project, "got politics?"
Louis Koenig, The Chief Executive, ch. 2
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The Democratic Primaries 2000
Tenure/Disability/Vice Presidents/Impeachment
"got politics?" Project update
The American Constitution
Koenig, ch. 4
Videotape excerpt: The Vice President
Sept. 12 The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the Near-Impeachment of Richard Nixon
U.S. Congress, Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment, February, 1974
Eric McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction, ch. 15
Marcus Cunliffe, The Presidency, ch. XI
Videotape excerpt: "All the President’s Men"
(Redford and Hoffman)
"Nixon"
Sept. 19 The Impeachment of Bill Clinton
Class Debate: Should President Clinton Have Been Removed from Office?
Michael Beshloss, The Impeachment and Trial of President Clinton (esp. pp. ix-xx; 3-24; 67-107;211-326) [library]
Videotape excerpt: The Partisan Nature of the Clinton Impeachment (1/29/99)
Recommended: U.S. Government, Background and History of Impeachment, Nov. 9, 1998
U.S. Government, Report by Staff of…Impeachment Inquiry, November, 1998
U.S. Government, Preliminary Memorandum of Independent Counsel, September 28, 1998
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Sept. 26 Going Public
Koenig, ch. 5
Videotape excerpt: Kernell, "Going Public"
"Thank You Mr. President"
"Reagan and the Media"
Oct. 3 Presidential Psychology and Character
Sex in the White House
James Barber, The Presidential Character
Class reports on Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight Eisenhower, William Taft, Warren Harding, Ronald Regan
Videotape excerpt: Presidential Candidates
Jefferson in Paris
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Oct. 10 Candidate Selection/Third Party Candidates
Vice Presidential Candidates, 2000
Class Debate: Should the Electoral College be Abolished?
"got politics?" project update
Koenig, ch. 3
Videotape excerpt: Republican, Democratic and Reform Party Conventions, 2000
Republican candidate Cheney and Democratic candidate Lieberman
Third Parties
Oct. 17 Strategy and Tactics
Campaign Update
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Packaging the Presidency, Introduction, ch. 1
Carol Mueller, "The Gender Gap and Women’s Political Influence" (1988)
Roberta Johnson and Betsy Carroll, "The 1992 Presidential
Election: On the Air with the Candidates"
Videotape excerpt: 1948 Election
Campaign Ads
The War Room
Oct. 24 Presidential Debates
Update on "got politics?" Project
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, David Birdsell, Presidential Debate, ch. 5
Videotape excerpt: 2000 Election Debates
Jeff Greenfield and Presidential Debates
Oct. 31 Debates (cont.)
Update on "got politics?"
Nov. 7 The Presidential Election
Election Returns and Analysis (local and national newspapers)
Walter Burnham, "The Turnout Problem"
Charles Freund, "What’s New?"
Robert Dahl, "The Myth of the Presidential Mandate"
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Nov. 14 President and the Political Party
Koenig, ch. 6
Videotape excerpt: Latinos and the Republican Convention
Final take-home paper questions will be distributed.
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Nov. 21 The President and Congress
Koenig, ch. 7, 15
Nov. 28 The President and Foreign Policy
Koenig, ch. 9,10
Dec. 5 Hollywood Spins on the Presidency
Videotape excerpt: various commercial films
