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PS360 - Parties and Elections
Professor Renka
Monday, 6 December 1999

Final Examination Essay

 

            The following essay topic is part of the final exam, and is worth 100 points (same as previous essays).  Its due date is Monday, December 13 on or before the noon final exam time.  Do only one essay, not both!.

 1.  Why have political parties become more powerful inside the national Congress in the 1990s than they were in the 1960s or 1970s?  What factor or factors have moved the membership to permit party leaders to have enhanced powers in the House and the Senate?  What would it take to cause a reduction of those powers?

 

2.  Party theorists have long held a “responsible parties” model of leadership behavior in democracies.  Is it possible to have full-scale party government in the U.S. political system?  If so, what factors make that possible?  If not, what are the important barriers to achieving this?