Joseph M. Bessette, Ph.D.

Alice Tweed Tuohy Professor of Government and Ethics

Department:

Government

Areas of Expertise:

American Constitutionalism, American Politics, Crime and Criminal Justice, Ethics and American Democracy, Presidency

jbessette@cmc.edu

(909) 607-3989

(909) 621-8419

Kravis Center 236

Office Hours

By appointment

Education
Research and Publications

B.S., Boston College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago

By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment, with Edward Feser (Ignatius Press, 2017)
“The Imperial Executive in Constitutional Democracy: Exploring the Powers-Duties Distinction” in The Imperial Presidency and the Constitution (Lexington Books, 2017)
American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy, and Citizenship, with John J. Pitney (Cengage/Wadsworth, 2013), Second Edition
The Constitutional Presidency, ed. Joseph M. Bessette and Jeffrey K. Tulis (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)
“The Powers and Duties of the President: Recovering the Logic and Meaning of Article II” (with Gary J. Schmitt) in The Constitutional Presidency
“Confronting War: Rethinking Justice Robert Jackson’s Concurrence in Youngstown v. Sawyer” in The Limits of Constitutional Democracy, ed. Stephen Macedo and Jeffrey K. Tulis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2010)
The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy and American National Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994)
“In Pursuit of Criminal Justice,” The Public Interest, No. 129 (Fall 1997)
Toward a More Perfect Union: The Writings of Herbert J. Storing, ed. Joseph M. Bessette (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1995)
The Presidency in the Constitutional Order: An Historical Examination, edited with Jeffrey Tulis (Transaction Publishers, 2010)
“Deliberative Democracy: The Majority Principle in Republican Government,” in How Democratic is the Constitution?, ed. Robert Goldwin and William Shambra (American Enterprise Institute, 1981)