| Professor: Tom Keck |
Teaching Assistant: Brianna MacMahon |
| tmkeck[at]maxwell.syr.edu | |
| Office hours
Tu Fr 3:30-4:30 (appointment required) |
W 12:30-2:00 (walk-in okay) |
| Office location
Eggers 312 (315-443-5862) |
Eggers 024 |
Class Time and Location: T, Th 2:00-3:20pm, Falk 200
Course Content
This course is focused on the Trump administration and the U.S. Constitution.
Our syllabus this semester will be a “living document.” In other words, its content will take shape and grow as we proceed. I’ve made this choice because the course is a new one, and I want its content to evolve to reflect our collective conversation about what aspects of the relationship between President Trump and the Constitution are most important for us to discuss. The course is also a timely one, and I’d also like its structure to remain flexible enough to incorporate breaking news and events.
Course Readings
There are 3 required books for the course, and I recommend that you purchase each of them:
- Ginsburg and Huq, How to Save a Constitutional Democracy
- Brettschneider, The Oath and the Office
- Tribe and Matz, To End a Presidency.
All books have been ordered at the SU Bookstore but should be available from other outlets as well. Note that the Tribe & Matz book is available now in hardcover and Kindle editions, but the paperback (which has been ordered at SU Bookstore) will not be released until March 5. That will still be in plenty of time for us to use it.
I have also ordered two recommended book:
- Levitsky and Ziblatt, How Democracies Die
- Teachout, Corruption in America
These books may be helpful for some of the writing assignments, and I encourage you to purchase them if you’re able and as needed.
Course Policies
Attendance and course readings: This course will have a heavy discussion and participation component. Among other things, this component will require regular attendance in class and diligent preparation beforehand. If you anticipate missing a class, please let me know beforehand, and please keep careful track of the date and reasons for each absence.
Laptops and other electronic devices: In some of my lecture-focused courses, I prohibit the in-class use of electronic devices. This class will be discussion-focused, and we will sometimes make use of such devices as reference sources. So feel free to bring them, but be sure to use them only for course-related purposes. No Facebook, email, texting, etc.
Grading policy: Most of the written assignments for this course will be graded by a teaching assistant. If you have any questions about these written assignments, either before or after they are due, you are welcome to speak with either me or the TA. If you are dissatisfied with your grade on any assignment graded by a TA, you may appeal that grade to me. To do so, you should submit a clean copy of the paper to me, which I will re-grade from scratch. This means that you could receive a grade that is lower, higher, or the same as the grade originally assigned.
Late paper policy: Late papers will be accepted only under unusual circumstances, and only with my explicit permission (so don’t bother pleading with the TA). If and when I agree to offer an extension, I will grade the late-arriving paper myself.
Academic support services: SU provides a variety of tutoring and academic support services, and I encourage you to avail yourself of these resources. Doing so may help you learn the course material better, determine the best strategies for studying that material, improve your writing skills, and have less stress about your success in the course. Tutoring centers include the Tutoring & Study Center (TSC), the Writing Center, the Math and Calculus Clinics, the Physics Clinic, the Chemistry Clinic, and the Athletics Academic Services Center. Further details are available here.
Academic integrity: The Syracuse University Academic Integrity Policy holds students accountable for the integrity of the work they submit. This means that it is your responsibility to be familiar with the policy in general and to learn about the specific expectations of each of your instructors regarding proper citation of sources in written work. The policy governs the integrity of work submitted in exams and assignments as well as the veracity of signatures on attendance sheets and other verifications of participation in class activities. Serious sanctions can result from academic dishonesty of any sort, but in my experience, the most common form of such dishonesty is plagiarism, which consists of the failure to properly credit the sources of anyone else’s ideas, information, or language that are incorporated into your own work. If you are caught violating any of these rules, I will assign an F for the course and then refer the matter to the College of Arts & Sciences academic integrity coordinator for additional action. All papers for this course will be submitted electronically through Turnitin.com, a resource which aids students in assessing whether they have properly cited all sources and aids instructors in identifying instances of plagiarism. You should be aware that all papers you submit for this class will become part of the Turnitin.com reference database for the purpose of detecting future plagiarism.
Future use of student academic work: Any work that you produce as part of your participation in this course may be used for educational purposes in future courses. For example, if you write a very good paper, I may distribute it in future classes as a model. If and when I do so, I will always remove your name so that the work is rendered anonymous. In addition, as noted above, Turnitin.com will maintain copies of all submitted papers in order to enhance its efforts to detect future plagiarism.
Reasonable accommodation: If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS), located in Huntington Hall (443-4498). ODS is responsible for coordinating disability-related accommodations and will issue Accommodation Authorization Letters when appropriate. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided retroactively, please contact ODS as soon as possible.
Religious holidays: In accordance with SU policy, I will excuse any absences that result from religious observances, provided that you notify me in advance of the planned absence.
Office hours and email communication: The TA and I would like to get to know each of you as well as we can, in order to ensure that you are each mastering the course material to the best of your ability. As such, you are each required to visit me or the TA in our respective offices at least once during the semester. Failure to do so by the end of the semester will result in a failing grade for attendance & participation.
When you come to see one of us, I hope you’ll have an interesting question about the course material, but you should come even if you do not have any such questions, because we will be keeping track. You are, of course, welcome to visit us more than once–indeed, as many times as you like.
The TA’s regular office hours are listed above; if those days/times work, you are welcome to just stop by. My regular office hours are also listed above, but for these, you must make an appointment in advance by clicking here. If you can’t make it during any of our regularly scheduled windows, you should send an email that goes to me and the TA, with an indication of some alternative days/times when you’re free; one of us will get back to you with an appointment. Likewise, if you have a quick question that can likely be answered by email, send it to both me and the TA; whichever one of us gets to it first will reply. (But before you email us, you might want to look at this.)
Note also that I will sometimes use Blackboard’s “Send email” feature to contact all members of the class. As such, you are responsible for regularly checking your SU email account.
Course Expectations
Course grades will be based on three paper assignments, a news-following assignment, and class participation.
The papers (together, 75% of your grade)
Paper assignment #1 (20%)
In approximately 5 pages, typed and double-spaced, advance an argument regarding whether some action or policy taken or initiated by the Trump administration is consistent with fundamental principles of constitutional democracy. Your argument should include at least one cross-national comparison; i.e., you should compare an action by the Trump administration to a related action taken by a government outside the U.S., and you should use that comparison to advance your argument. Your paper must reference Ginsburg and Huq’s How to Save a Constitutional Democracy and at least one additional scholarly book (i.e., a book authored by one or more university-based scholars). During class or office hours, you should show this second book to me and/or the TA, and be prepared to discuss it.
Paper assignment #2 (20%)
In approximately 5 pages, typed and double-spaced, advance an argument regarding whether some action or policy taken or initiated by the Trump administration is consistent with fundamental principles of constitutional democracy. This time, your argument should include at least one historical comparison; i.e., you should compare an action by the Trump administration to a related action taken by the U.S. government at some prior point in time, and you should use that comparison to advance your argument. Your paper must reference Brettschneider’s The Oath and the Office and at least one additional scholarly book (i.e., a book authored by one or more university-based scholars). During class or office hours, you should show this second book to me and/or the TA, and be prepared to discuss it. This paper may build on your first paper–e.g., it may be focused on the same Trump administration policy–but it should demonstrate substantial additional research, analysis, and writing.
Paper assignment #3 (35%)
In approximately 12 pages, typed and double-spaced, advance an argument regarding whether some action or policy taken or initiated by the Trump administration is consistent with fundamental principles of constitutional democracy. Your argument should include substantially expanded and improved versions of the cross-national and/or historical comparisons developed in your earlier papers. The paper should cite Ginsburg/Huq, Brettschneider, and at least two additional scholarly books.
News-following assignment
Beginning on Tuesday of week 2, all students must come to each class with a recent news article related to the topic of our course. You can bring the hard-copy newspaper, bring a printout of an online article, or simply bookmark the article on your phone or laptop–but whatever format you choose, you should have the article readily at hand from the beginning of class. Prof. Keck will periodically call on certain students to briefly present their article to the class (i.e., describe its contents and then pose a question for discussion).
You may bring the same article to class more than once, but whenever Prof. Keck calls on you to discuss your article, or another student discusses the same article, or your article becomes out of date, you should select a new article to bring to the following class.
Your performance on this assignment will be folded into the attendance and participation portion of your grade.
Attendance, participation, in-class writing, and news following (25% of your grade)
This portion of your grade will be based on your in-class contribution to your own learning and that of your classmates. This contribution will require your physical presence in class, diligent preparation beforehand, active engagement while you are there, and occasionally some in-class writing assignments (usually unannounced).
Physical presence is clear enough. We all have legitimate reasons for missing class on occasion (illness, religious holidays, university-sponsored travel, etc.), but in the absence of such legitimate reasons, I expect everyone to be in class. When you miss class, you should let me know when and why, and you should record the date and reason for your own records. Diligent preparation requires that you read the assigned pages prior to class and, whenever possible, spend some time thinking or (even better) talking about the material before class as well. Active engagement involves attentive listening, careful note-taking, responding to questions in class, raising questions of your own, and seeking help from me or the teaching assistants outside of class whenever necessary. I recognize that this sort of class participation comes with some risks. After all, you might say something that reveals your own lack of knowledge. Rest assured that no one will be penalized for being wrong or imprecise, for expressing uncertainty or frustration, or for changing their minds. But it should be clear that you are trying, that you have done the readings, and that you are working toward a mastery of the material. In-class writing assignments (including quizzes) may occasionally be used to assess students’ comprehension of the required readings.
Your attendance & participation grade will be assigned as follows: On the last day of class, you should submit a one-page self-assessment in which you assign yourself a letter grade (A, B+, etc.) for attendance & participation and write a couple paragraphs explaining and justifying that grade. In this self-assessment, you should address the following questions:
- How many times were you absent from class? When and why? (Please list the dates, with an explanation for each one.) If the absence was excused, did you notify Prof. Keck in advance?
- How often did you participate in class discussions? When you didn’t participate, were you nonetheless alert and prepared for class? If so, then why didn’t you speak up on those occasions?
- Approximately how many pages of notes did you take during each class session? When and how did you review those notes later on? How helpful did you find them?
- During class, how often did you do anything that might have distracted your fellow students (e.g., chatting, sleeping, texting, opening your laptop, arriving late, leaving the room during class)?
- How often did you visit me or the teaching assistant during office hours?
The teaching assistant and I will read your self-assessment, compare it with our own perceptions, combine those with your performance on the civic engagement assignment and in-class writing, and then assign you a grade for attendance & participation.
Course Schedule
Week 1: Course intro. No reading
On Tuesday, we’ll begin our collective conversation about Trump and the Constitution. On Thursday, class will not meet, as I’ll be in D.C. attending a meeting of the Scholars Strategy Network and lobbying in support of H.R. 1. Please use this time to get started on your news following assignment and the readings for next week.
I. Is American constitutional democracy in danger?
For weeks 2-4, our principal text will be Ginsburg and Huq’s How to Save a Constitutional Democracy. All students will be expected to read it in full. I also recommend Levitsky and Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die and Mounk’s The People v. Democracy.
Week 5 will be devoted to our news gathering assignment and paper assignment #1. The latter is due on Friday, February 15, but you should have a partial draft in hand by Tuesday of that week, as we may do some peer review and workshopping.
Please read the Ginsburg and Huq book on the following schedule:
- Jan 22: Intro and ch 1
- Jan 24: ch 2 and 3
- Jan 29: ch 4
- Jan 31: ch 5
- Feb 5: ch 6
- Feb 7: ch 7 and conclusion
II. A guide to the Constitution for future presidents
For weeks 6-10, our principal text will be Brettschneider’s The Oath and the Office. All students will be expected to read it in full.
Week 11 will be devoted to our news gathering assignment and paper assignment #2. The latter is due on Friday, April 5, but you should have a partial draft in hand by Tuesday of that week, as we may do some peer review and workshopping.
Please read the Brettschneider book on the following schedule:
- Feb 19: Intro and ch 1
- Feb 21: ch 2 and 3
- Feb 26: ch 4 and 5
- Feb 28: ch 6
- Mar 5: ch 7-8
- Mar 7: ch 9
- Mar 19: ch 10
- Mar 21: ch 11
- Mar 26: ch 12-14
- Mar 28: ch 15 and conclusion
III. Should President Trump be impeached?
For weeks 12-14, our principal text will be Tribe and Matz’s To End a Presidency. All students will be expected to read it in full.
Week 15 will be devoted to our news gathering assignment and paper assignment #3. The latter is due on Friday, May 3, but you should have a partial draft in hand by Tuesday of that week, as we may do some peer review and workshopping. Participation self-assessments are also due that Tuesday (see above for instructions).
Please read the Tribe & Matz book on the following schedule:
- April 9: Preface and ch 1
- April 11: ch 2
- April 16: ch 3
- April 18: ch 4
- April 23: ch 5
- April 25: ch 6 and epilogue
There will be no final exam.