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PS365 - The Legislative Process - Spring 2002
Professor Russell Renka

PS365 Syllabus Sections:
    ° Course Coverage
    ° Course Readings
    ° Other Readings and Additional Resources
    ° Course Examinations and Papers
    ° Weekly Reading and Examination Itinerary

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PS365 Course Coverage - Spring 2002                  Top

   The U.S. Congress is one of the preeminent political institutions in the democratic world.  It is also one of the oldest, dating from 1789.  The Framers spent the majority of their time and effort on fashioning this institution.  This course concentrates on that institution, showing how Congress and its Members work.  It is an ongoing democratic experiment in running a powerful and independent legislature.  Congress also displays democratic politics with nearly unique clarity.  But many Americans dislike politics, and the Congress is often a special target of that sentiment.  Its right and capacity to govern are under serious challenge.

    Congress has two faces. One is Members of Congress at home and on the campaign trail, constantly traveling home, doing 'district work sessions', providing services to constituents, and appearing on local media. The other is Congress in session on Capitol Hill with committee hearings, parliamentary maneuvers, floor debate and voting, vote trades, small and large insiders' intrigues, arguments on national media about major policy, fights over presidential Cabinet nominations, and even impeachment proceedings. Understanding this Congress in session requires that we understand Members of Congress in their districts or states.

    So we look first at 'home style' as a key to legislators' careers. Congressmen and Senators are above all products of their districts and states.   We see how relations at home are established and kept up, why incumbents win reelection so often, how pork barrel works, why PAC money flows almost entirely to incumbents, and how local media access operates.  Members of Congress closely reflect their districts.  Changed districts have undercut conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans since the 1980s.  The result is the highly partisan and habitually confrontational Congress in recent years.  The current 107th Congress honors this trend--even after 11 September 2001. 

    But it isn't clear that Congress can operate indefinitely through such strong partisanship. Today Congress on the House of Representatives side has "conditional party leadership" which tries to practice strict party governance in the peculiarly American bicameral, separated-powers, non-parliamentary context.  Party division dominated the 1998-1999 presidential impeachment proceeding.   It is comparably dominant elsewhere,  in committees and on the floor, in the rules, and most of all, in the epic budget face-off of winter 1995-96 in the 104th Congress between its House Republican majority and the Democratic president.  But the Senate is resistant to such partisan dominion, as we shall see.  So is the President on many an occasion.  And we shall see why, with spatial analysis that has become elemental to understanding this institution.

    Congressional scholar Morris Fiorina says Congress is "the keystone of the Washington Establishment."  The institution indeed is very powerful.  But it is often very parochial as well.  This exposes Congress to severe public disdain as an institution even while the voting public typically demands this same behavior as the price of having a reasonably long congressional career.  We consider how often Congress will "do the right thing", why the floor rules are so critical to ultimate outcomes (such as House impeachment of President Clinton in December 1998), what floor voting reveals about congressional policymaking, and how Congress deals with the other important power centers in Washington and the nation.  All along, we consider proposed reforms:  What would happen if term limitations or other anti-Congress actions take hold?  Why is authentic debate and deliberation so rare in modern Congresses?  What's responsible for the climate of surliness and incivility in the House of Representatives?  And we summarize by considering what future the Congress has.

PS365 Course Readings - Spring 2002             Top

    Stewart, Charles III.  2001.  Analyzing Congress.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company.

    Dodd, Lawrence C. and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds.  2001.  Congress Reconsidered, 7th ed.  Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press.

    Jacobson, Gary C.  2001.  The Politics of Congressional Elections, 5th edition.  New York: Addison-Wesley.  My colleague Karen Hult from Virginia Tech has published a Jacobson reading guide that you will find useful for this book.

Stewart's text is in Textbook Service, the others at Southeast Bookstore.  Both are listed under 'PS365' with the course name.

PS365 -Other Readings and Additional Resources - Spring 2002                 Top

     I will expect you to regularly read Roll Call Online: The Newspaper of Capitol Hill Since 1955 at http://www.rollcall.com.  It is updated at least twice a week and is best checked through its News Index (at http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/) periodically.  Note also Roll Call Guide To Congress for introductory features, including Welcome Congress--excellent for learning what's what in the 107th Congress.  I will periodically discuss these articles in class and draw exam questions partially or entirely based upon them.

PS365 - Course Examinations and Papers - Spring 2002                Top

(1) Examinations (600 points):   Three examinations are worth 200 points each, one at the 5th week, a second right after the 10th, and a third in Finals week.  Each covers readings and class proceedings.  Each exam has an in-class section (mostly multiple choice) and a take-home essay worth 100 points each.  The take-home part gives you two or more essay questions from which to select.  You then have about five days to complete and deliver the resulting paper.  Since Exam no. 3 is on the date of the final, your take-home part will be issued a week ahead of time.
    You may deliver a paper either by hard copy at class time, or electronically via attachment.  Attachments are easy:  just close the pertinent file before you attach it, go to your e-mail server, hit "Attach" and specify the locale of the file, then hit "Open" and it'll become an attachment that the recipient can open.  If you're uncertain how to do attachments, just take a file and try e-mailing it to yourself.  If you can open it, so can any other email recipient.

(2) Midterm Paper (100 points): A paper of approximately five pages is due by Friday, March 15 just before Spring Recess, valued at 100 points. You should select one or more Senators or Members of Congress worthy of attention for what his or her career tells us about how the Congress works. Use someone to demonstrate an insight into Congress itself, as well as that Representative or Senator.  Ground rules on submission are the same as the Term Paper.

(3) Term Paper (200 points): There is a 200 point term paper of at least 10 full pages length, with 10 or more sources, on any topic of your choice which is germane to legislatures. Full details on this are under separate cover. For now, note the following. First, select a topic of your own choosing which has a clear congressional aspect to it. This may sound difficult but really isn’t. I will specify deadlines for written statements of term paper topics, and will follow with another deadline for a listing of your source list materials.  To avoid overuse of our printer, I do ask that you provide me a hard copy; but I ask that you also send it via e-mail as an attachment.  That way, I will:  a) use your hard copy to make penciled notations, corrections, suggestions, and so forth; and b) use your electronic copy to post it (or a revised version) to a website locale if you permit.  That could eventually prove useful for you to put together a portfolio of your written work.  Our Department emphasizes the importance of this for our majors and minors, and we invite all of you to avail yourselves of this service.  Due date:  Monday, April 29.

(4) Forum (100 points):  Click on this link to see the course Forum for discussion of pertinent class material.  Contributions are valued at 3 points per entry up to 100 points, so that's about 33 entries or around two a week--but I reserve the right to reduce or dismiss postings that are not meaningful.  A tally of your postings will be periodically shown in the Gradebook.

(1) through (4) - PS365 Total Points: 1,000

PS365 - Weekly Reading and Examination Itinerary - Spring 2002      Top

Week 1 - January  14-18       Basic Theory - the spatial analysis of Congress

    Stewart, Chapter 1 - An (Unusual) Introduction to the Study of Congress,  pp. 3-54
   
    Dodd and Oppenheimer, "A House Divided:  The Struggle for Partisan Control," Dodd & Oppenheimer selection 2, pp. 21- 44

Week 2 - January  23, 25       The Framers - Where and How It Began

    Stewart Ch. 2 - The Constitutional Origins of Congress, pp. 55-86; and for reference - Stewart Appendix B - The United States Constitution, pp. 401-422 
    
    Jacobson Chapter 1 - Introduction, pp. 1-4

    Jacobson Ch. 2 - The Context, pp. 5-19

    Sinclair, "The New World of U.S. Senators," Dodd & Opp selection 1, pp. 1-19
     
Week 3 - January 28-February 1     Becoming A Modern Careerist Legislature

    Stewart Ch. 3 - The History and Development of Congress, pp. 87-128

    Stewart, Appendix A - Researching Congress, pp. 393-400

    Hibbing and Smith, "What the American Public Wants Congress to Be,"   D & O selection 3, pp. 45-65
    
 Week 4 - February 4-8       Strategic Politicians

    Stewart Ch. 4 - The Choices Candidates Make:  Running for Congress, pp. 129-164

    Jacobson Ch. 3, "Congressional Candidates," pp. 21-55
    
    Jacobson Ch. 4,  "Congressional Campaigns," pp. 57-100
    
Week 5 - February 11-15 **    Non-strategic Voters

    Stewart Ch. 5 - The Choices Voters Make, pp. 165-193
    
    Jacobson Ch. 5, "Congressional Voters," pp. 101-139

**Examination No. 1: Friday, February 15

Week 6 - February 18-22     Not All Politics Is Local
    
    Jacobson Ch. 6, "National Politics and Congressional Elections," pp. 141-209

Week 7 -  February 25-March 1     Regulating Itself
    
    Erikson and Wright, "Voters, Candidates, and Issues in Congressional Elections," D & O selection 4, pp. 67-95

     Jacobson Ch. 7, "Elections and the Politics of  Congress," pp. 211-235
    
     Herrnson, "The Money Maze:  Financing Congressional Elections," D & O selection 5, pp. 97-123

Week 8 - March 4-8     Congress Governs Itself

    Stewart Ch. 6 - Regulating Elections, pp. 194-234

Week 9 - March 11-15       Conditional Party Government

    Stewart Ch. 7 - Parties and Leaders in Congress, pp. 235-273
    
    Aldrich and Rohde, "The Logic of Conditional Party Government:  Revisiting the Electoral Connection," D & O selection 12, pp. 269-292
    
**Note:  due date for midterm paper is Friday, March 15

Week of March 16-22       Spring Recess - no classes

Week 10 - March 25-27     Party Government

    Smith and Gamm, "The Dynamics of Party Government in Congress," D & O, selection 11, pp. 245-268

   Cooperman and Oppenheimer, "The Gender Gap in the House of Representatives," D & O selection 6, pp. 125-140

(Friday, March 29 is Good Friday, meaning "no class" for us.)

Week 11 - April 1-5   Congressional Committees
    
    Stewart Ch. 8 - Congressional Committees, pp. 274-335

    **Examination No. 2:  Monday, April 1 (no foolin')

Week 12 - April 8-12      Committees

    Canon and Stewart, "The Evolution of the Committee System in Congress," D & O, selection 8, pp. 163-189

    Evans, "Committees, Leaders, and Message Politics," D & O selection 10, pp. 217-243
    
    Groseclose and King, "Committee Theories Revisited," D & O selection 9, pp. 191-216
    
Week 13 - April 15-19     The Rules and the Floor
 
    Stewart Ch. 9 - Doing It on the Floor: The Organization of Deliberation, pp. 336-392

Week 14 - April 22-26     Congress and the President
    
    Binder, "Congress, the Executive, and the Production of Public Policy:  United We Govern?," D & O selection 13, pp. 293-313
    
    Destler, "Congress and Foreign Policy at Century's End:  Requiem or Cooperation?," D & O selection 14, pp. 315-333

    Fiorina, "Keystone Reconsidered," D & O selection 7, pp. 141-162

Week 15 - April 29-May 3    Congressional Legitimacy

    Jacobson Ch. 8, "Representation, Responsibility, Impeachment Politics, and the Future of Congressional Elections," pp. 237-270
     
    Cooper, "The Twentieth Century Congress," D & O selection 15, pp. 335-366
    
    Dodd and Oppenheimer, "Congress and the Emerging Order:   Assessing the 2000 Elections," D & O selection 17, pp. 367-388

**Note:  due date for term paper is Monday, April 29

Finals Week - May 6-10       ** Final Exam is Wednesday, May 8, 8:00-10:00 a.m.

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July 25, 2007 10:40 AM
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