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{ Photo of Michael Genovese

Michael A. Genovese received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1979. He currently holds the Loyola Chair of Leadership Studies, is a Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount University. In 2006, Professor Genovese was made a Fellow Commoner at the Queens College, Oxford University. Professor Genovese has written sixteen books, including The Paradoxes of the American Presidency, (co-authored by Thomas E. Cronin), Oxford University Press, 2nd ed 2004; The Presidency and the Challenges of Democracy (co-edited with Lori Cox Han), Palgrave, 2006, The Presidency and Domestic Policy, (with William W. Lammers), CQ Press, 2000, The Power of the American Presidency 1789-2000, Oxford University Press, 2001, The Presidential Dilemma, Longman, 2nd ed 2003, and The Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, Facts-on File, 2004 (winner of the New York Public Library, “Best of Reference” work of 2004). He has won over a dozen university and national teaching awards. Professor Genovese frequently appears as a political commentator on local and national television. He is also Associate Editor of the journal, White House Studies, has lectured for the United States Embassy abroad, and is editor of Palgrave Macmillan Publishing’s, “The Evolving American Presidency” book series. In 2004-05, Professor Genovese served as President of the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association.

Presidential Power in an Age of Terrorism:
Can an 18th Century Constitution
Govern a 21st Century Superpower?

October 15-19, 2008
at the University of Oklahoma

For better or worse, the presidency has become the center of the American political universe. In many respects, we have become a “presidential nation”. The Framers of the United States Constitution did not intended it to be this way, and the contradiction between the Constitution “as written” and the Constitution “as practiced” creates a series of stress fractures in our politics. The presidency has entered the new millennium battered and bruised. As an institution it faces severe challenges. The crisis of 9-11 notwithstanding, the presidency is an institution that is both troubled and troubling.
           
This seminar examines the invention of the presidency, the rise and fall of presidential power, the historical roots and developments of the office, how presidents have governed in a separation-of-powers system, and the contemporary problems of presidential leadership in the war against terrorism. We will conclude the semester with a discussion of the dilemma of governing in a separation-of-powers system, and look at the reform agenda.

Click here for syllabus

The Class Reading List: (These books and articles supplied by OSLEP)
  • The Paradoxes of the American Presidency by Thomas E. Cronin and Michael A. Genovese
  • Not a Suicide Pact by Richard A. Posner
  • Fiasco:The American Military Adventure in Iraq.by Thomas E. Ricks
  • The Power of the American Presidency: 1787-2000 by Michael A. Genovese
  • Memo to a New President by Michael A. Genovese
  • Reading Packet