US Congress

CMC Gov 101, Spring 2005 

Monday 7-10 PM  Classroom:  RN-15

J.J. Pitney

Office: Pitzer 215

Telephone: 909/607-4224

Office Hours:  Monday Wednesday 4-7 PM 

If these times are inconvenient, please make an appointment

 Email: jpitney@mckenna.edu

Alternate email:  profpitney@yahoo.com

Web:  http://govt.mckenna.edu/jpitney

See also my Congress Links page.

 

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 the New York Times, Washington Post or  ABC's The Note

Grades

 The following will make up your course grade:

•  One three-page essay                       15%

• One five-page essay                          20%

• Legislative simulation                         25%

• A sit-down final exam                        30%

• General class participation                 10%

•  The papers will develop your research and writing skills.  In grading your papers, I will take account of the quality of your writing, applying the principles of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. If you object to this approach, do not take this course, or anything else that I teach.  

•  The simulation will require you to study your part and spend several sessions in character.  Do not take this class if you cannot take part in the simulation. 

• The exam will test your comprehension.  In place of the sit-down final, graduating seniors will write a take-home, due on the last day of class

• Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet, as I shall call on students at random.  If you often miss class or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer.  In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts, emails, and web links covering current events and basic factual information.  The exam will cover this material.

• As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive on time, and refrain from eating in class.  I reserve the right to withhold class handouts from latecomers.  Check due dates for coursework and the exam. Arrange your schedule accordingly.  Do not plan on extensions.   

• Plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty will result in referral to the Academic Standards Committee.  See: http://registrar.claremontmckenna.edu/acpolicy/plagiarism.asp

   Required Books

• Joseph M. Bessette, The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy and American National Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

• Amy E. Black, Douglas L. Koopman, and David K. Ryden, Of Little Faith:  The Politics of George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives (Washington:  Georgetown University Press, 2004).
• Colton C. Campbell, Nicol C. Rae, and John F. Stack, Jr., eds., Congress and the Politics of Foreign Policy (Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice-Hall, 2003).
• Roger H. Davidson and Walter J. Oleszek, Congress and Its Members, 9th ed.  (Washington: CQ Press, 2004).
• Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds., Congress Reconsidered, 8th ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2005).

 Schedule  The schedule is subject to change, with advance notice. 

Jan 24: Evolution of Congress

"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer." -- Will Rogers

 

• Davidson & Oleszek, ch. 1-2.  

• Dodd & Oppenheimer, ch. 1-2.

• Bessette, ch. 1-3.

        Jan 31: Elections       

        "Rob Richie, executive director of FairVote-The Center for Voting and Democracy, said in a memo last week that `this House election was the least

        competitive in history.' He based that claim, he told me, on the fact that outside of Texas, where a controversial Republican redistricting in 2003

        succeeded in defeating four of five targeted Democrats, only three incumbents lost their seats. That's a 99 percent success rate outside Texas."

        -- David Broder, Washington Post, November 11, 2004.

• Davidson & Oleszek, ch. 3-4.  

• Dodd & Oppenheimer, ch. 4-7

THREE-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED JAN 31, DUE FEBRUARY 14.  

READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST.

          Feb 7: Hill Style and Home Style

Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) said that Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) "gave him one valuable piece of advice over dinner: hold regular news conferences on Sunday, a ploy Mr. Schumer has long used to avoid competing with major news for the press's attention. In New York, Mr. Schumer's Sunday pressers, as they are called, have become such a fixture in local politics that his opponent in this year's election, Howard Mills, held his own `presser'  to announce that he would `plant 25 trees to replace the trees killed last year to print Chuck Schumer's press releases.'" -- Raymond Hernandez, New York Times, December 20, 2004.

• Davidson & Oleszek, ch. 5

• Dodd & Oppenheimer, ch. 3

• Bessette, ch. 4-5

          Feb 14: Leaders and Parties

 “While the House is notoriously raucous, the Senate is, by design, usually calm, dignified and deliberative.  But for both parties, Senate leadership elections are more like the hallowed rite of a secret society than the functioning of a modern democratic institution.” -- Jim VandeHei and Helen Dewar, just before Trent Lott’s ouster 

• Davidson & Oleszek, ch. 6

• Dodd & Oppenheimer, ch. 8-10.

• Joe Scarborough, "The Easter Rising," ch. 7 of Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day (New York: HarperCollins, 2004).

• Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, "The Johnson System," in The Legislative Process in the US Senate, eds. Lawrence K. Pettit and Edward Keynes (Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1969).

Feb 21: Bills and Committees

"Last Friday in the Ways and Means Committee while conducting a markup of a bill as a result of decisions made by members of the committee and by me as chairman, there was a breakdown of order and decorum. To reestablish order in the committee, I requested that staff place a call to the Sergeant at Arms. That decision, in my opinion, was proper and appropriate. A second decision to instruct staff to see if the Democrats that had occupied the library would go to room 1129, which is a room reserved for the Democrats for meetings and caucuses, and to enlist the support of the Capitol Police to do so if necessary, that decision, in the words of  Norm Ornstein in a column today in Roll Call, was described as `just plain stupid.' I agree with him. -- Bill Thomas, July 23, 2003.

• Davidson & Oleszek, ch. 7

• Bessette, ch. 6.

• Dodd & Oppenheimer, ch. 11-12.

• Victoria Nourse and Jane Schacter, "The Politics of Legislative Drafting: A Congressional Case Study," New York University Law Review 77 (June 2002), at: http://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/LegalRef/StatConstruction/Nourse.pdf