THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Technicalities. This course is open only to sophomores, juniors and seniors who have completed PS 12 or PS 100, and PS 104 (or equivalent).  

Content. The course will examine the development of the U.S. presidency from the origins of the office until the present day.   The emphasis is on contrasting accounts that emphasize the role of the president as an individual strategic actor;   accounts that emphasize the importance of institutions, and accounts that emphasize the importance of change external to government—for example, in technology and the economy. These issues are highlighted in the current historical moment of transition from the Bush to the Obama administration. Throughout, we will be interested in the problems involved in drawing historical analogies and trying to imagine "what-if" counterfactuals.

Requirements. The course requirements include the following:

1. Attending lectures and taking notes. The textbook, Milkis and Nelson, is organized historically. Other readings, however are more thematic. The lectures will involve dicussion of historical developments and important themes. There will be material in the lectures that will be new and that will not be covered in the readings. In preparing exams, I will assume that you are familiar with material from lectures and from assigned readings.

2. Exams. There are two exams in this course. The mid-term will be in class on  Monday February 9, and will be worth 25% of the course grade.   The final exam will be comprehensive and worth 30% of the course grade.   The final exam is Friday March 20, 12:00-3:00pm

3. Original analysis:   Each student must complete an original essay discussing expectations about Obama's performance in office in light of the historial evidence on the presidency. The assignments will be distributed and discussed in class no later than Monday, January 26.   The analysis is worth 30% of the course grade and will be due no later than the start of class (11:00 am, Monday, March 2, 2009.    You may be asked to submit both an electronic and paper copy of your work.

You will be graded off for poor writing (including nonstandard grammar, disorganization, rambling sentences, and misspelling). You will receive further instructions about how to document your work.   Good work will be clearly written and well-researched.  See paragraph below on academic dishonesty.

4. Readings.   There is a lot of reading and you need to work diligently so as not to fall behind. The weekly discussions will help with the task of organizing the historical material in a thematic way.   After you do the readings, check your own comprehension by seeing if you can compose a brief summary of the main points and supporting evidence in the assigned material. If you do this regularly you will be well-equipped to earn an excellent grade in the class; you will get more out of the class; and you will be in a position to participate more effectively. I reserve the option of giving unannounced in-class quizzes if I feel students are not keeping up with the readings. No make-ups of these quizzes will be permitted   

5. Participation. The remaining 15% of the course grade will reflect your participation. Participation principlally involves attending and contributing to discussion section. There will also be an online course "forum." To participate you must be present and prepared.   Sitting silently is not participating.

You must register for the class forum. This is an additional method of participating in which you can discuss current events; comment on or react to course materials; etc. Participation here is NOT required, but this will be the main means of communicating with the entire class on procedural issues or other questions that may come up (e.g., about interpreting review questions for exams).

6.   Learn the Presidents.   Students are expected to know names, parties, years in office, nature of separation from office for all presidents from Lincoln through GWBush. A worksheet can be downloaded HERE.

Office Hours:   I am available for office hours on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.   I also respond to e-mail, and I will participate in the course “forum.”

Grades. As indicated above, your course grade will be determined on the basis of the following weights to be applied to each separate performance:   Analysis: .30; Final exam: .30; Midterm .25,   Participation, .15.

Late work. Plan your schedule now so that you can submit your work on time and be prepared for the final. Any essay turned in late will be penalized one full letter grade for each 24 hour period it is late. Anyone missing an exam without a prior excuse will not be permitted to make up the exam without evidence of a real emergency beyond his/her control. Students requesting alternative exam times, for whatever reason, must expect exams that are more difficult and that have a different format.  Here are some of the many reasons for makeup exams that I will not accept: Your parents are coming into town for a non-emergency visit. There is a really cool concert in LA the night before. You have decided to take two classes scheduled at the same time. You decide to purchase a non-refundable airline ticket for the day before the exam.

Academic Integrity. In all work, students are expected to maintain the highest levels of academic integrity. The University General Catalog states:   "It is expected that students understand and subscribe to the ideal of academic integrity and be willing to bear individual responsibility for their work.   Materials submitted to fulfill academic requirements must represent a student's own efforts.   Any act of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or other forms of cheating, is unacceptable and will be met with disciplinary action."     Also see information at the Student Affairs Web Page.  

In the case of exams, this means that you must not cheat. In the case of written assignments, it means that you must do original work and properly document your work. When you copy from another work (including things you find on the internet), enclose the copied information in quotation marks and indicate the source of the copied information. When you closely paraphrase the work of another person, indicate the source with a reference. When you draw your ideas substantially from the work of another, indicate that with a reference as well.   When you report facts or statistics that are not common knowledge, indicate with a reference the source of the fact or statistic.   If your misbehavior is serious, your work will be referred to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action.

Required for purchase at the bookstore are two core texts.   All three books should be on reserve at the RBR.

Milkis and Nelson, The American Presidency 5th. CQ Press, 2008

Schier, Panorama of a Presidency: How George W. Bush Acquired and Spent His Political Capital, M.E. Sharp, 2008

Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power, Amistad, 2008

There is additional required reading. All of it is available online through links on the online course "schedule." To access these readings you need to have a login and password that are available only in class. If you do not want to read online or print your own copy, you may purchase your own copy from GRAFIKART on Pardall Road in Isla Vista

ONLINE :  A web site with many resources for this course is available at:  

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu

or alternatively, you can (usually) reach it simply by typing:   www.americanpresidency.org

In order to participate fully in the assignments for this class, it is extremely important that you have access to this web site.   Please let me know immediately if for any reason you are unable to access this resource. UPDATES AND NECESSARY MODIFICATIONS WILL BE POSTED ONLINE AND ANNOUNCED IN CLASS.