Exam No. 4 – Essay Section (optional)
PS103 – Fall 2007
Professor Russell Renka
November 28, 2007
Essay Section (100 points): I’ve already said what’s needed to do proper citation of the sources you use, but one point bears repeating: be sure you place quotations around any direct use of words from a source. And of course, be darned sure to use evidence from the reading and lectures (and supplements I used) to support your points. Where appropriate, cite the author, year of publication, and page or pages from which you draw the material you cite. If you employ outside sources, OK, but they’d better be good ones—especially if you use them in preference to the assigned readings.
Do one of those three items. The due date is Wednesday, December 5 by midnight in the Drop Box under "Essay 4" heading. *This Essay is optional. You should do this essay only if: 1) you've been doing a lot better on essays than on the in- class exams, and 2) your average is close or very close to a grade borderline (high B or low A, high C or low B). If you don't do better on these, or have a middle-letter grade now that's unlikely to change by a letter from doing this Essay, then you can bypass this one. I grade all essays "blind," meaning I know who writes it but I evaluate it without knowing what effect the essay grade has upon the course average or grade.
1. The modern American presidency of 1933-to-present is significantly more powerful than the historical presidency of 1789 to 1933. What factors have contributed to this change? What actions have been taken since 1933 to improve the handling of presidential succession (transition from one president to another one) outside the normal path of periodic elections?
2. Presidential powers on national security and foreign policy (defined in Chapter 20) exceed those on domestic policy. What are the primary factors that account for this? The foreign policy responsibilities include response to the threat of international terrorist organizations. How adequate was the response of the Bush Administration to the events of 9-11-2001?