Democracy Without Presidents

Professor Nelson's lecture will consider recent developments in the Obama presidency and make the case (drawing from assigned book and from new material) that citizens who care about democracy need to stop looking for current or future presidents to rescue it. The Constitution does not name the president the leader of democracy; rather, he is the executive of federal government. Many of our dissatisfactions with US government follow directly from our own distaste for democratic politics.

Biography
Dana D. Nelson is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University and a prominent progressive advocate for citizenship and democracy. She is notable for her criticism in her books such as Bad for Democracy of excessive presidential power and for exposing a tendency by Americans to neglect basic citizenship duties while hoping the president will solve most problems, or presidentialism. Her scholarship focuses on early American literature relating to citizenship and democratic government.