Pelletier Library Lecture by Brian M. Harward To Explore “Presidential Power and the Obama Administration”

Oct. 17, 2013 – Brian M. Harward, associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College, will present the 18th annual Pelletier Library Lecture at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Pelletier Library at Allegheny College.

The lecture, titled “Presidential Power and the Obama Administration,” is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

“This president, no less than his predecessor, is committed to taking care that the laws be faithfully executed: consistent with his view of the ‘faithfulness’ of the measure to constitutional requirements,” Harward says. The lecture will explore the role of broad executive power and the justification for such powers, as well as important limits to those powers. Harward will pay particular attention in his talk to occasions and examples of presidential discretion and the challenge of cultivating citizens’ awareness of constitutionalism—the rule of law—in times of crisis and uncertainty.