Inauguration of the 44th President
A popular presidency: bad for democracy?
January 22, 2009
Dana Nelson's book, "Bad for Democracy: How the Presidency Undermines the Power of the People" (University of Minnesota Press, 2008) argues that Americans are too inclined to "super-size" the presidency. She says that's not the way the founding fathers would have wanted it.
Nelson is a professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She talks with Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann about how Barack Obama fits the trend towards increasingly-powerful presidents and what Americans can do to take democracy back from the executive branch.
