The American Presidency

Units

1. 1

   Constitutional design of the presidency

   3 lessons

   1. Article II and the framers' debateExplain why the framers at Philadelphia in 1787 chose a single, elected, energetic executive after fearing a monarch, and read Hamilton's Federalist 70 against the short list of powers in Article II.
   2. The vesting clause and the unitary executiveRead the vesting clause and the take care clause, and explain the argument between those who read executive power as a grant of more than Article II lists and those who read it as only a title, using the removal cases from Myers to Seila Law.
   3. Washington's precedentsExplain how Washington's choices from 1789 to 1796 turned a brief text into a working office, the cabinet, the neutral and independent executive, the two-term custom and the Farewell Address, and how the 22nd Amendment of 1951 made the custom law.
2. 2

   Nomination and elections

   3 lessons

   1. From conventions to primariesExplain how the nomination of presidential candidates moved from party leaders in conventions to voters in primaries and caucuses after the McGovern-Fraser reforms of 1968 to 1972, and read the 2020 Democratic calendar.
   2. The Electoral College mapExplain how 538 electoral votes, the 270 needed and the winner-take-all rule turn state popular votes into a presidency, read the 2020 result of 306 to 232, and say how a small margin in a few states decides it.
   3. Swing states and campaign strategyDefine a swing state, show with the 2000 Florida margin of 537 votes and the 2020 margins how few states decide the Electoral College, and explain how candidates spend their time and money where it counts.
3. 3

   Theories of presidential power

   3 lessons

   1. Neustadt: power as persuasionState Neustadt's claim in Presidential Power (1960) that presidential power is the power to persuade, name the three resources of a president's bargaining position, and apply them to Truman and Eisenhower.
   2. Unilateral actionDefine executive orders, memoranda and proclamations, explain Moe and Howell's theory that presidents act first and force Congress and the courts to respond, and read the long record of executive orders from Washington to Biden.
   3. Political timeExplain Skowronek's argument in The Politics Presidents Make (1993) that a president's opportunities depend on the president's place in a recurring cycle of political regimes, and place Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Reagan as reconstructive presidents.
4. 4

   The president and Congress

   3 lessons

   1. The veto and the veto threatState the constitutional rules for the veto and its override, read the record of vetoes by president, and explain how the threat of a veto shapes bills before they reach the president's desk.
   2. Divided governmentRead the pattern of unified and divided party control since 1952, state Mayhew's finding that divided government does not stop landmark laws, and contrast it with Binder's and Krehbiel's accounts of gridlock.
   3. The legislative agenda and the honeymoonRead presidential success scores, explain the honeymoon and the first hundred days, and trace Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Great Society as the peak of presidential legislative success.
5. 5

   The bureaucracy and the executive office

   3 lessons

   1. The Executive Office of the PresidentExplain why the Brownlow Committee of 1937 said the president needs help, trace the creation of the Executive Office of the President in 1939, and describe its main units: the White House Office, the Office of Management and Budget and the National Security Council.
   2. Appointments and removalDescribe the appointments clause and Senate confirmation, explain who the president can remove through Myers v. United States (1926) and Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), and map who can fire whom.
   3. Controlling the bureaucracyExplain OMB and OIRA review of agency rules from Reagan's Executive Order 12291 in 1981, describe the president, agencies and Congress as a principal-agent problem, and contrast police-patrol and fire-alarm oversight.
6. 6

   Foreign policy and war powers

   3 lessons

   1. Declared and undeclared warsState Congress's power to declare war and the president's role as commander in chief, list the five declared wars, and explain how most American military action has rested on other authority, such as authorisation resolutions and executive claims.
   2. Vietnam and the War Powers ResolutionTrace the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution of 1964 and the escalation in Vietnam, explain the War Powers Resolution of 1973 passed over Nixon's veto and its 60-day clock, and assess how well it has constrained presidents.
   3. Crisis decision-makingNarrate the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 as a case of presidential crisis decision-making, describe Kennedy's ExComm and the options it considered, read the missile ranges from Cuba on a map, and evaluate what the case teaches about advice, groupthink and control.
7. 7

   The president and the public

   3 lessons

   1. Going publicExplain Kernell's argument that presidents increasingly appeal over Congress directly to the public, trace the tools from Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats to social media, and weigh the evidence on whether going public works.
   2. Approval ratingsRead Gallup's average presidential approval from Eisenhower to Trump, explain the rally-round-the-flag effect with George W. Bush after September 2001, and describe the long-run decline in the average and the rise of the partisan gap.
   3. The press and the permanent campaignDescribe the White House press corps and its history from Roosevelt to the age of social media, explain the news cycle, and state Heclo's idea of the permanent campaign with a diagram of how messages flow.
8. 8

   Historical development of the presidency

   3 lessons

   1. Jackson and LincolnExplain Jackson's Bank veto of 1832 and his claim to speak for the people, describe Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus and use of war powers in the Civil War, and place them on a timeline of the nineteenth-century presidency.
   2. The modern presidencyExplain how Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt created the modern presidency, read the growth of the federal workforce from 1900 to 1950, and name the features that Greenstein associates with the modern presidency.
   3. Watergate and the post-Watergate presidencyExplain Schlesinger's imperial presidency, trace Watergate from the break-in of 1972 to Nixon's resignation, state United States v. Nixon (1974), and describe the reforms and the polarisation of the post-Watergate presidency.