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This course provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the American presidency and covers a range of topics: elections, congressional relations, public communications, unilateral action, influence over the bureaucracy, leadership in foreign policy, and much more. 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.

For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.

This new course will address the full range of issues involving executive power under the U.S. Constitution, including the process of election (Electoral College; voting disputes, the Electoral Count Act), impeachment, foreign affairs (including control of foreign relations, command of the military, and control over national security, surveillance, and the like), authority of the President over executive agencies (including the power of removal and the duty to enforce the law), prosecution, pardon power, congressional oversight and executive privilege, executive statutory and constitutional interpretation, the budget process, litigation against the executive, and the role of the Office of Legal Counsel. The course will begin with an overview of the development of Article II at the Constitutional Convention, based in part on the instructor's recent book, THE PRESIDENT WHO WOULD NOT BE KING (Princeton Univ. Press 2020). Each topic will include historical context, relevant Supreme Court and lower court opinions, legal materials and commentary from outside the courts, and discussion of recent controversies. Class will be a combination of lecture and class discussion. The latter will be partly free-form, partly based on targeted questions from the instructor, and partly based on mini-debates. For grading, students will have the option of an open-book take-home exam and a 30-35 page research paper on a topic pre-approved by the instructor. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Exam or Final Paper.

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on American politics. May be repeated for credit.

Cross-listed with Law ( LAW 7071), Political Science ( POLISCI 334) and Sociology ( SOC 374). Associated with the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). Year-long workshop for doctoral students and advanced undergraduates writing senior theses on the nature of civil society or philanthropy. Focus is on pursuit of progressive research and writing contributing to the current scholarly knowledge of the nonprofit sector and philanthropy. Accomplished in a large part through peer review. Readings include recent scholarship in aforementioned fields. May be repeated for credit for a maximum of 3 units.

In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If so, why? How can we justify the law? How should we understand and respond to unjust laws? What is punishment? What is punishment for? What, if anything, justifies punishment by the state? What is enough punishment? What is too much punishment? What does justice require under nonideal conditions? Prerequisite: one prior course in Philosophy.

(Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answers given by some of the most prominent modern philosophers turn on the idea of a social contract. We will focus on the work of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls.

At the time of the European Enlightenment, the talk about the end of the world was taken to be a remnant of religious beliefs or the domain of insane people. The rational mind knew how to eliminate those obstacles to continuous scientific and technological progress. Today the situation has radically changed. Science and technology are the places where the end of the world is predicted. Apocalypse is looming. This seminar will explore various fields where this transformation is taking place. The following menaces will be considered: nuclear war, climate change, gene editing, synthetic biology, advanced artificial intelligence. Among the philosophies that will be summoned: the post-Heideggerian critique of technoscience (Hannah Arendt and G¿nther Anders), Hans Jonas' Ethics of the Future, the concept of existential risk (Nick Bostrom) and the instructor's concept of Enlightened Doomsaying. Appeal to literary works and films will be part of the program.

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political theory. May be repeated for credit.