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PS365 - The Legislative Process - Spring 2000
Professor Russell Renka

° 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 2000               Top

   This course concentrates on the contemporary U.S. Congress and its Members. Our national legislature is one of the best-studied entities in the world. It is a democratic experiment in running a legislature without the usual parliamentary party government. Relative to the executive, the Congress of the 1990s is very powerful now. But a large segment of Americans truly dislikes national politics, and the Congress is a special target of that sentiment. Its right and capacity to govern are therefore under serious challenge.

    Congress has two facets. One consists of Members 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 the more familiar civics-image, of 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, and impeachment proceedings. Understanding Congress in session requires understanding Members of Congress back home.

    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. We will see that changes in districts have undercut conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.  The 1990s result is a succession of the most partisan and confrontational Congresses in modern history. 

    But it isn't clear that Congress can operate indefinitely through such strong partisanship. Our reader (Dodd and Oppenheimer) affirms that Congress 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 late 1995 in the 104th Congress between its House Republican majority and the Democratic president.

    Despite the Republicans' loss of momentum in its budget confrontation with President Clinton, the institution remains 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 surly incivility in the House of Representatives?  And we summarize by considering what future the Congress has.

PS365 Course Readings - Spring 2000             Top

    Davidson, Roger H. and Walter J. Oleszek.  2000. Congress and its Members, 7th ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press.   (hereafter called "Davidson")

    Dodd, Lawrence C. and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds. 1997. Congress Reconsidered, 6th ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. (hereafter called "D & O")

    Jacobson, Gary C. 1997. The Politics of Congressional Elections, 4th edition.  New York: Longman.  (hereafter called "Jacobson")

Davidson 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 2000               Top

     I will issue occasional classroom handouts or website assignments in addition to the regular reading from the sources listed above.   Typically these take advantage of something contemporary but not known or available at issuance of this syllabus.  Examples are articles from the authoritative weekly publication, Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, available in Kent Library behind the Periodicals Counter, or on-line at http://library.cq.com by following the links.  Another example is articles from the Hill newspaper Roll Call, in KL or on-line at http://www.rollcall.com.

S365 - Course Examinations and Papers - Spring 2000              Top

Examinations (600 points):   There are three examinations worth 200 points each, one at the 5th week, a second at the 19th, and the last on finals day after week 16 concludes. Each one covers material from readings and class proceedings. Each exam divide 50-50 with an in-class section (mostly multiple choice) and a take-home essay. The take-home part gives you two or more essay questions; you select one, complete it over the weekend, and turn it in by class time the next Monday. Each exam is worth 200 points, 100 for the MC and 100 for the essay. Since Exam no. 3 is on the date of the final, your take-home part will be issued a week ahead of time.

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 tentative source list (written, or on disk in Microsoft Word).  Due date:  Friday, May 1 (start of Week 15).

Midterm Paper (100 points): There is also a shorter 5-pager due by Friday, March 10 just before Spring Recess. This is worth 100 points. You should select whichever current Senator or Congressperson you judge to be the one most worthy of attention for what his or her career tells us about how the Congress works. It need not be someone you personally like; for instance, before 1996 I might have selected Rep. Robert Dornan, whom I couldn’t stand, because his boorish behavior demonstrates some considerable breakdown of the norms of courtesy and reciprocation which traditionally prevail among Members.  The point is to use someone to demonstrate an insight into Congress itself, as well as that Representative or Senator.

Ultimate Bulletin Board and Class Participation (100 points):  I expect you will participate in class during discussion, and I reserve certain periods for calling on individuals to briefly review what we have covered.  There is also a new means of interacting with each other, through CSTL's Ultimate Bulletin Board.  I will issue you personal passwords for each of you to access the UBB.  More details on that will be issued in a separate message.

PS365 Total Points: 1,000

PS365 - Weekly Reading and Examination Itinerary - Spring 2000                          Top

Week 1 - January  19,21 (Wednesday and Friday)      Introduction; the two Congresses in the 1990s; historical development as a major constraint on party government

    Davidson and Oleszek text (henceforth "Davidson"), ch.1 (The Two Congresses)
    Davidson ch. 2 (Evolution of the Modern Congress)
    Davidson Appendix A (pp. 416-417)

Week 2 - January  22-28     Historical development of the Congress, or what makes it unique and different from any parliament; congressional districts and representation in an age of gerrymandering

    Hibbing and Theiss-Moore, "What the Public Dislikes About Congress" in Dodd & Oppenheimer, selection 3
    Jacobson (The Politics of Congressional Elections), ch. 1 (Introduction),  2 (The Context)
    Swain, "Women and Blacks in Congress: 1870-1996" in Dodd and Opp. (D & O), selection 4
    Davidson ch. 3 (Going for It:  Recruitment Roulette), pp. 43-61

Week 3 - January 29-February 4     Getting elected and reelected; why incumbents are so hard to defeat; feeling a sense of jeopardy

    Davidson 3 (Going for It:  Recruitment Roulette), pp. 61-86
    Jacobson 3 (Congressional Candidates)
    Jacobson 4 (Congressional Campaigns)
    Davidson 4 (Making It: The Electoral Game)
    Herrnson, "Money and Motives:  Spending In House Elections" in D & O, sel. 5

Week 4 - February 7-11     Washington politics at work back home--Home style, pork barrel and reelection

    Davidson 5 (Being There:  Hill Styles and Home Styles)
    Jacobson 5 (Congressional Voters)

Week 5 - February 14-18     Summation

     Maisel and Stone, "The Politics of Government-Funded Research:  Notes from the Experience of the Candidate Emergence Study," PS:  Political Science and Politics 31:4 (December 1998), pp. 811-817

**Examination No. 1: Friday, February 18

Week 6 - February 21-25     All Politics is not local; some politics is national

    Erikson and Wright, "Voters, Candidates, and Issues in Congressional Elections" in D & O, sel. 6
    Jacobson 6 (National Politics and Congressional Elections)
    Bader, "The Contract with America:  Origins and Assessments" in D & O, sel. 15

Week 7 -  February 28-March 3     Doing the right thing--Congress and collective responsibility; term limits

    Jacobson 7 (Elections and the Politics of  Congress)
    Jacobson 8 (Representation, Responsibility, and the Future of Congressional Elections)
    Ornstein, Peabody, and Rohde, "The U.S. Senate Toward the Twenty-First Century," in D & O, sel. 1

Week 8 - March 6-10     Conditional Party Government; the Republican majority during a Democratic presidency; Note:  due date for midterm paper is Friday, March 10.

    Davidson 6 (Leaders & Parties in Congress)
    Dodd and Oppenheimer, "Revolution in the House:   Testing the Limits of Party Government" in D & O, sel. 2
    Sinclair, "Party Leaders and the New Legislative Process" in D & O, sel. 10

Week of March 13-17        Spring Recess - no classes

Week 9 - March 20-24     Congressional Committees:  Is it the End of Government by Subcommittee?

    Davidson 7 (Committees: Workshops Congress)
    Smith and Lawrence, "Party Control of Committees in the Republican Congress" in D & O, sel. 7

Week 10 - March 27-31 Review and recap

            **Examination No. 2: Friday, March 31

Week 11 - April 3-7     Changing the Way Committees Work; The Rules and Procedures on the Floor

    Davidson 8 (Congressional Rules and Procedures)
    Evans and Oleszek, "Congressional Tsunami?  The Politics of Committee Reform" in D & O, sel. 8
    Hall and McKissick, "Institutional Change and Behavioral Choice in House Committees" in D & O, sel. 9

Week 12 - April 10-14     Voting On the Floor; Dealing with the President

    Davidson 9 (Decision Making in Congress)
    Davidson 10 (Congress and the President)

Week 13 - April 17, 19 (Friday, April 21:  Easter Recess)     Legislators and the Other Branches of Government; Congress and organized interests

     Davidson 11 (Congress, the Bureaucracy, and the Courts)
    Davidson 12 (Congress and Organized Interests)

Week 14 - April 26,28 (Monday, April 24:  Easter Recess)   Handling the Money

    Davidson 13 (Congress, Budgets, and Domestic Policy Making)
    Thurber, "Centralization, Devolution, and Turf Protection in the Budget Process" in D & O, sel. 14 

Week 15 - May 1-5     National Security and Foreign Economic Policy;  Note:  due date for term paper is Monday, May 1.

     Davidson 14 (Congress and National Security Policies)
    Burgin, "Assessing Congress' s Role in the Making of Foreign Policy" in D & O, sel. 13

Week 16 - May 8-12     Congressional Legitimacy

    Davidson 15 (The Two Congresses and the American People)
    Oppenheimer ("Abdicating Congressional Power:  The Paradox of Republican Control" in D & O sel. 16
    Dodd and Oppenheimer, "Congress and the Emerging Order:   Conditional Party Government or Constructive Partisanship?" in D & O, sel. 17

        ** Final Exam:   Wednesday, May 17 at 8:00 a.m. to 9:55 a.m.

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