How do interest groups try to influence Congress? Do lawmakers have the expertise and information to make decisions about national and homeland security?
Telephone: 909/607-4224
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1-3 PM
If these times are inconvenient, please make an appointment
General
Like a vast picture thronged with figures of equal prominence and crowded with elaborate and obtrusive details, Congress is hard to see satisfactorily and appreciatively at a single view and from a single stand-point. Its complicated forms and diversified structure confuse the vision, and conceal the system which underlies its composition. It is too complex to be understood without effort, without a careful and systematic process of analysis.
-- Woodrow Wilson, Congressional
Government
In this course, we shall
undertake such analysis. We
shall ask how lawmakers behave at home and on Capitol Hill. We shall study Congress's
procedures and structures, with an eye to explaining why some bills
pass while others languish.
Classes
Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish each week's readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news stories about Congress, so you must read a good daily news source such as Politico or Real Clear Politics.
Blog
Our class blog is at http://gov101.blogspot.com. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:
To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
To post relevant news items or videos.
Grades
The following will make up your course grade:
Details
Required Books
John Haskell, Marian Currinder, and Sara A Grove, Congress in Context, 2d ed. (Boulder: Westview, 2014).
Schedule The schedule is subject to change, with advance notice.
Jan 22: Introduction
"Such a waste of talent. He chose money over power. In this town, a mistake nearly everyone makes. Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries. I cannot respect someone who doesn't see the difference." -- Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) in House of Cards
What are the major functions of Congress?
Jan 27, 29: Two Political Branches, Two Chambers, Two Congresses, Two Parties
"The Democrats are the opposition; the real enemy is the Senate." -- Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), repeating an old saying.
Haskell, ch. 1-2.
Feb 3, 5: Leaders and Parties
"In all bodies, those who will lead, must also, in a considerable degree, follow. They must conform their propositions to the taste, talent, and disposition, of those whom they wish to conduct: therefore, if an assembly is viciously or feebly composed in a very great part of it, nothing but such a supreme degree of virtue as very rarely appears in the world, and for that reason cannot enter into calculation, will prevent the men of talent disseminated through it from becoming only the expert instruments of absurd projects!" -- Edmund Burke
What is the relationship between legislative leaders and the rank-and-file?
FIRST ESSAY DUE FEBRUARY 7.
Feb 10, 12: Media and Elections
"So why is compromise so hard in the House? ... [The answer could be this instead: individual members of Congress are responding fairly rationally to their incentives. Most members of the House now come from hyperpartisan districts where they face essentially no threat of losing their seat to the other party. Instead, primary challenges, especially for Republicans, may be the more serious risk." -- Nate Silver
Haskell, ch. 4.
Feb 17, 19: Process I
“If you let me write procedure and I let you write substance, I'll screw you every time.” -- Rep. John Dingell (D-MI).
How does the majority use rules
to control the chamber? How does the minority push back?
Haskell, ch. 5,
ONE-PAGE MEMO ON SIMULATION ROLE DUE FEBRUARY 19.
SECOND ESSAY DUE FEBRUARY 25
Feb 24, 26: Process II
"The Senate was meant to be a counterbalance for the passions embodied in the House. If some Republicans had their way, and overruled the Senate parliamentarian, and the rules of the Senate were illegally changed so that the majority ruled tyrannically, then the Senate -- billed to all as the world's greatest deliberative body -- would cease to exist." -- Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)
How does procedure affect the quality of deliberation in both chambers?
Haskell, ch. 6-8
Mar 10, 12: Stimulus, Health Care, and Taxes
"The U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to approve legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff despite having only 3 minutes to read the 154-page bill and budget score. Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNS News.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013 – a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM." -- Matt Cover, 1/2/2013
How have recent fiscal controversies played out?Mar 17, 19: Spring Break
Mar 24, 26: Congress and the Other Branches
"If procuring votes with offers of employment is what you intend, I'll fetch a friend from Albany who can supply the skulking men gifted at this kind of shady work." -- William Seward (David Strathairn), in Lincoln.
In the struggle between Congress and the other branches, what circumstances favor each side? How does the president try to influence them?
Haskell, ch. 11, 12
Mar 31-Apr 3: Legislative Simulation -- Leave evenings open.
April 7, 9: Oversight
Haskell, ch. 9-10
Apr 14, 16: Lobbies, National Security
"Politics are changing and you don't want to be the last one holding the dog collar when the oversight committee comes." -- "Dan" (Jason Clarke) to "Maya" (Jessica Chastain) in Zero Dark Thirty
How do interest groups try to influence Congress? Do lawmakers have the expertise and information to make decisions about national and homeland security?
"It quickly became clear that there is nothing new or unusual about the pattern of sharp partisanship shown in the past two presidential elections and in the frequent battles on Capitol Hill. David Brady of Stanford University made the point that the late 19th century and parts of the 20th century were also times of party warfare; the anomaly was the relative truce for roughly 25 years after World War II." -- David Broder
How does today's Congress compare with that of the past? Have lawmakers gotten better or worse?
Taylor, ch. 1-5
April 28, 30: Appraising Congress II
"It may take courage to battle one's president, one's party, or the overwhelming sentiment of one's nation; but these do not compare, it seems to me, to the courage required of the Senate defying the angry power of the very constituents who control his future." -- John F. Kennedy
How had divided government worked since the Second World War? Why has polarization waxed and waned?
Taylor, ch. 6-9.
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