American Government Discussion Questions: The Leader of the Free World

The Powers and Politics of the US Presidency

Readings: Chapter 12, The Presidency

Pick two of the questions below and respond to them in a 4-page paper. When you come to class on the day you are scheduled to be discussion leader, be prepared to summarize and share your response to the question for the class. Please be thoughtful about what you present to the class so that your reflections will stimulate our discussion as an entire class. Those who are the assigned discussion leaders for the day will be the "authorities" on the given topic for the class.

The textbook will be your primary source, but I am asking you to consult an extra 2 sources outside of the textbook. These sources might be websites, magazine or newspaper articles, or books. Make sure these extra two sources are of good quality! Use the two outside sources to bring in additional information to augment or illustrate an example. Do not use a dictionary or similar sites to just define terms. Find sources that add something substantial to your responses. SO, in summary

Cite, paraphrase, or quote the textbook at least four times as you answer the questions.

And cite, paraphrase, or quote your two extra sources (2-3 times each) as well.

For the format of your paper, follow the Paper Guidelines as explained in the document of the same name on D2L. As for all papers in this class (as noted on the syllabus), papers should be typed, double-spaced, printed in 12 font, with reasonable margins (no more than one inch, perhaps less). Do not include a lot of white space at the beginning or between paragraphs. In terms of the citations, I am asking you to use Chicago style endnote citations. I will put up a file (called Chicago Style) on D2L with specific instructions for the citation style from the book, The Everyday Writer, by Andrea Lunsford.

Tips for sources: You can look at the White House website at whitehouse.gov. Or, look at the C-SPAN Presidential Historian Survey (see below). As always, you can look for recent articles from solid journalistic sources like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The BBC, The Atlantic, The Economist, and The Nation (progressive). Do not use Wikipedia or other similar on-line encyclopedias (about.com, answers.com, etc.). You could look at the Suggested Readings at the end of the textbook chapter. You can always try CQ Researcher or one of the library's other databases.

Discussion Question 1: Presidential power today is so much greater than what is described in the Constitution. Explain this. How have US presidents expanded the power of the presidency?

Discussion Question 2: Even though the influence and prestige of the American presidency is considerable, in what ways is the power of the American President still limited? By what and by whom? Give two specific examples. On the other hand, how can presidents get around possible obstacles to their policy goals?

Discussion Question 3: What are executive orders? How have they been used by various presidents? What is the constitutional basis for these orders? What are some historically significant executive orders? What are the limitations on executive orders?

Discussion Question 4: Check out the Survey of Presidential Leadership conducted by the C-SPAN network, compiling responses from 91 presidential historians. Discuss the findings of the survey, answering some (you don't have to answer all) of these questions. What do you find most interesting about this survey? What do you think about the criteria used in this ranking system? What do the highest ranked presidents have in common? What do the lowest ranked presidents have in common? Former President Obama comes into the rankings at number 12 out of 43 presidents. In what categories did Obama score the highest and the lowest? Why? What do you notice about the rankings of recent presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan? How would you rank President Trump so far on these categories?