DPI-132: American Presidents, Politics, & Economic Growth: A Look from WWII to Today

Semester: Spring

Credit: 1.0

Faculty: Richard Parker

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 1/26
Meet Day T/Th 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM L382
Review

Description

Barack Obama is facing an extraordinary challenge, attempting to lead America (and the world) out of the 21st centurys first great global meltdown.  Yet every American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has taken it as his “duty” to “manage” the economy and “promote” economic growth – but who decides those policies, and how?  Using the White House as our focal point, well investigate how Washington took on its permanent “growthmanship” role late in the New Deal, and how competing institutions, interest groups, intellectuals, and ideas underpinning presidencies – from Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Maynard Keynes through John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and William Clinton, right up to George Bush and Alan Greenspan, Barack Obama and Larry Summers – have shaped that role ever since.  Well pay special attention to the shifting strategies pursued by administrations, given the contexts, competition, and challenges they faced, assessing the political pressures, the intellectual models, and the complex interplay of policymakers, politicians, journalists, interest groups, and the public.  Anyone planning to work – or who has worked – in Washington will benefit from the institutional and strategic analysis and history the course provides.