The Presidency

This course provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the American presidency and covers a range of topics: elections, policy making, control of the bureaucracy, unilateral action, war-making, and much more. But throughout, the goal is to understand why presidents behave as they do, and why the presidency as an institution has developed as it has, with special attention to the dynamics of the American political system and how they condition incentives, opportunities, and power.