During our nation's founding, the authors of the Constitution
debated at length about how the President should be addressed.
Avoiding any implication of royalty, they chose a simple "Mr.
President" over florid titles like "Your Exellency." This choice was
not, and is not, irrelevant. It says volumes about what sort of
President they intended to create; he was to be first among equals
rather than a ruler.

Today the President of the United States is arguably the most
powerful individual in the world.  He holds tremendous influence
both inside and outside of the United States.  Yet the Founders, in
designing the office, gave it surprisingly few powers. The President
appears to be a clerk, working largely behind the scenes to carry
out the legislative wishes of Congress. The goal of this course is
to examine the causes of this apparent disconnect between the
Presidency as we know it today and the formal powers of the office.

We will look back to the Founding and examine how the Presidency has
evolved through time.  We will read both original documents and
scholarly works on presidential power.  We will explore presidential
interaction with other branches of government and with the media.
We will spend some time on presidential elections, focusing on how
campaigns are run, and we will also focus on the various powers
(enumerated or otherwise) at the Chief Executive's disposal.

This course involves a fair amount of reading. It is not
overwhelming, but be prepared to do more than in an introductory
(100 or 200 level) class.

Please note that this course studies the Presidency, not the
Presidents. While it will of course be necessary to study and
discuss the personalities that have inhabited the office over the
years, our primary focus will be on the institution of the
Presidency. To the extent that it furthers our understanding of the
office we will discuss the current and recent Presidents, but
critiques of personality or performance will be secondary.