Media
Public Writing
"How a once-fringe theory of presidential power is upending American government" (with Desmond King and Stephen Skowronek)
Salon | February 8, 2025
Now the Supreme Court is all that stands in the way of a “unitary executive.”
The Monkey Cage, Washington Post | November 29, 2021
New York Times | March 16, 2021
Congress needs to find creative ways to engage the executive branch that favor cooperation over conflict.
"Trump waged war on the 'Deep State.' Can Biden's 'good government' approach work now?" (with Stephen Skowronek and Desmond King)
Salon | February 15, 2021
Podcasts
Scholars' Circle | February 16, 2025
An interview with Mark Tushnet, Stephen Skowronek, and John A. Dearborn. Hosted by Doug Becker.
New Books in Politics and Polemics | December 1, 2021
An interview with Desmond King and John A. Dearborn. Hosted by Kirk Meighoo.
New Books in Political Science | October 28, 2021
An interview with John A. Dearborn. Hosted by Lilly Goren.
New Books in Political Science | July 29, 2021
An interview with Stephen Skowronek and John Dearborn. Hosted by Lilly Goren.
Scholars' Circle | May 9, 2021
An interview with Stephen Skowronek, John A. Dearborn, and Desmond King. Hosted by Doug Becker.
Videos
Today in Nashville | February 17, 2025
Impact of Tennessee Presidents.
Bookmarked: Conversations about Civic Leadership | April 10, 2023
Join CLEAR's Dr. William Resh in conversation with Dr. John Dearborn (Vanderbilt) about his book Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation.
In Power Shifts, Dr. Dearborn shows that legislators acted on the idea that the president was the best representative of the national interest. Congress subordinated its own claims to stand as the nation’s primary representative institution and designed reforms that assumed the president was the superior steward of all the people. In the process, Congress recast the nation’s chief executive as its chief representative.
Academy Forum | May 24, 2022
Stephen Skowronek, John A. Dearborn, and Desmond King discuss their book, "Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive" (Oxford University Press, 2021), with Meena Bose. An Academy Forum moderated by Marylena Mantas, with a welcome from Robert Y. Shapiro.
Vanderbilt University | April 19, 2022
A conversation with the authors of three new, groundbreaking books.
In this discussion, moderated by Professor David Lewis, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Professors Alexander Bolton (Emory), Sharece Thrower (Vanderbilt), Douglas Kriner (Cornell), and John Dearborn (Vanderbilt) explore key issues about the modern presidency and how the public, Congress, and the courts can influence - and check - executive power.
News
Salon | August 14, 2024
"They will carry out the orders... without going through the trouble of firing everyone who resists"
Salon | August 13, 2024
Trump plans to pack administration with loyalists after career officials stymied first term plans.
Religion Dispatches | July 8, 2024
CBC News | August 10, 2022
As bills now move through Congress, here's the state of his agenda.
Christian Science Monitor | March 29, 2021
After the extraordinary events of the past five months, American democracy may be under stress like never before in the modern era.
YaleNews | March 29, 2021
Political scientists Stephen Skowronek and John Dearborn discuss their new book, “Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic,” and the expansion of executive power.