Congress and the Legislative Process
POLS 152-401
Dr. Rachel Paine Caufield
Spring 2002
Tuesday and Thursdays 2:00-3:15pm
Meredith 206
Contact Information:
I am very accessible to
students. Hereıs how to find me:
Office: Meredith
Hall 211
Office phone: 271-1924
Email address: rachel.caufield@drake.edu
Office hours: Mondays
and Wednesdays 12:00-1:00pm
Tuesdays
and Thursdays 1:00-2:00pm and
3:30-5:00pm
and
by appointment
Course Overview:
The United States
Congress is a fascinating institution.
Its structure and procedures are complex. Its members are loved by some, reviled by others. It is the most powerful and enduring
popularly elected legislative body in the world. This course is intended as a way for you to get to know the
U.S. Congress. Thus, we will
examine the conceptual basis for Congress, the framers intentions for the
institution and the meaning of representation in Congress. Then, we will move on to a study of the
individuals that make up the institution, the elections that put them there,
and their own perceptions about their role. Next, we will delve into the legislative process an
intricate and confusing process to examine how legislation is made, how
parties, people, committees, and interest groups influence this process, how
individual, institutional, and contextual factors can explain legislative
behavior, and how the distribution of power in this process has changed over
time. Last, we will examine the
relationship that Congress has with the executive and judicial branches of
government.
Because Congress is so
complex, a decent understanding of the institution requires you to master a
good deal of detail. True
understanding of Congress, assuming such a thing is possible, requires even
more than that. Thus, no one, even
those of you who have had the opportunity to work in a legislative environment,
should assume that you have a good foundation for learning the ins and outs of
Congress. A true understanding of
Congress needs to go beyond generalization and anecdote to seek patterns in the
distribution of power, the determinants of legislative behavior, and the role
of institutional actors. In other
words do your reading.
This is a class about the
institution of Congress. Please
donıt confuse that with the politics of Congress. For example, whether or not you agree with the policy
positions of the Contract with America is irrelevant to this class. What is relevant is how the 1994
³Republican Revolution² took place, the extraordinarily brilliant strategy
employed by Newt Gingrich leading up to the 1994 congressional elections, and
the ways that the Republican party changed the procedures of Congress to get
things done once in office. To put
it simply, check your politics at the door. Look instead for some analytical understanding of how
Congress gets things done, how things have changed over time, and how the
people that make up the institution operate within the constraints of that
institution. Similarly, although I
highly encourage all students (and all people) to follow current events and
engage in the political world around them, this is not a course about current
events.
Having said that, I
highly recommend that each of you keep up with the news by reading a daily
newspaper, tuning in to television programs such as The News Hour, This Week, or Meet the Press,
and radio programs like Morning Edition or All Things Considered
(both on National Public Radio).
In addition, for information specifically about Congress, you should
periodically consult a few on-line sources. I recommend the following: Roll Call, the
most authoritative newspaper on Capitol Hill, widely circulated and read among
congressional staffers as well as members of Congress, can be found at http://www.rollcall.com; The Library of
Congressıs website dedicated to legislative information is
http://thomas.loc.gov; and the
websites of the House of Representatives and Senate are found at http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov. Each of these sites has links to other
valuable information on the web.
Textbooks/Readings:
Without a doubt, the best
thing that you can do to earn a good grade in this class is to keep up with
class reading. Sometimes, reading
is heavy, but youıll benefit from the effort. Not only will you get more out of class meeting if you have
completed the assigned reading, but exam material will come from these
readings. If you find that you
have trouble with any of the readings, please feel free to come see me and
weıll go over it. I do reserve the
right to administer pop quizzes to be sure that everyone is keeping up with
reading assignments. If this should
become necessary, I will revise the grading criteria to account for these quiz
grades.
There are a number of
textbooks that I have assigned for this course. All are available at the bookstore, and all should be
available from online bookstores, Borders, or Barnes and Noble (should you
choose to patronize them instead of the University bookstore). Periodically, I will put additional
readings on reserve at Cowles Library.
Required:
Davidson, Roger H. and
Walter J. Oleszek. 2001. Congress and Its Members. 8th
edition. Congressional Quarterly
Press.
Mayhew, David. 1986. Congress:
The Electoral Connection. Yale University Press.
Price, David. 2000. The Congressional Experience.
Westview Press.
Smith, Steven S., and
Christopher J. Deering. 1997. Committees in Congress.
Congressional Quarterly Press.
Waldman, Steven. The Bill: How Legislation Really Becomes Law.
1996. Penquin.
Attendance:
You are expected to
attend class regularly and to be prepared for each class meeting that means
you have read the assigned reading prior to arriving in class and you are
prepared to discuss the topic listed on the syllabus. I do not necessarily ³require² attendance, although I will
periodically take attendance and ten percent of your final grade will be based
on attendance and participation.
If you are faced with an extreme situation that will require extensive
absence from the class, please come see me.
Grading:
During the semester, you
will be asked to complete 3 written assignments, 2 short (apx. 7 pages) papers
and one longer term paper (apx. 15 pages) that you will write with a
group. You will also take two
essay exams, a midterm and a final (which will not be cumulative). In addition, each group will make a
presentation to the class regarding their term paper research. These assignments will be graded and
your final course grade will be based on the following:
Midterm: 20%
Final: 20%
1st short
paper: 10%
2nd short
paper: 15%
Term paper (w/group): 15%
Presentation (w/group): 10%
Attendance and
Participation: 10%
In order to pass this
course, you must complete ALL course requirements (i.e., if you fail to
complete and turn in any one assignment by the last day of the semester, you
will fail the course). There will
be no extra credit offered.
Only in extreme
circumstances will extensions for written-assignments be granted. If you would like to request an
extension, you need to do so at least 24 hours prior to the due date. If you fail to complete and turn in any
written assignment by 5:00pm on the date that it is due, you will lose 5 points
for each day that it is late (including weekend days). You must turn in all coursework to me
personally, and I will not accept any assignments over email. If, for any reason, you must turn in an
assignment and you cannot do so personally, I have a mailbox in Meredith
227. Please make sure that you
have someone (another faculty member or the administrative aide, NOT a work
study student) initialize the date and time that you are dropping off the
assignment. If an assignment does
not have the date and time that it was turned in written clearly on the first
page (initialized by someone), I will mark it as being received when I pick it
up from my mailbox. All
assignments must be completed specifically for this course and academic
integrity guidelines will be strictly enforced (i.e. plagiarism and other
breaches of academic integrity will result in a failing grade for the course).
If you wish to request a
make-up exam, you must do so at least 24 hours before the exam. I will administer make-up exams only in
extreme circumstances. No one is
entitled to a make-up exam, they will be offered only at my discretion.
Should you require any
testing or classroom accommodations due to learning disabilities or other
circumstances, I will be happy to make those accommodations. I will need to see proper documentation
within the first two weeks of the semester.
Written assignments:
Two short papers (apx.
7 pages each): These papers
are designed to allow you to probe more deeply into two fundamental
issues: (1) who serves in
Congress? and (2) how do interest groups influence Congress? These papers have a dual purpose. First, they are designed to further
your research skills and make you use sources that students often donıt know
about. Second, they should make
you take a closer look at two controversial questions and by using a case
study for each, reevaluate conventional wisdom.
In the first paper, you
will profile one member of Congress.
I donıt care who you choose.
In writing this profile, I donıt want you to rehash information found on
the memberıs website nor do I want a summary of information from Politics in
America. Instead, Iıd like you to focus on how
active this member of Congress is, the issues that are most important to him or
her, why these issues are important, how they came to Congress, what their
electoral situation is, who supports them, who opposes them, etc. In other words, you will need to use
outside sources and you will need to integrate information from several
different sources in order to do well on this assignment.
In the second paper, you
will profile one interest group. Again,
I donıt care which you choose. The
main goal is to examine how this group influences congressional action. What resources do they use? How much money do they give? To whom? What are the issues that are most important to them? How many lobbyists do they have? How successful are they in getting what
they want from Congress? Which
members of Congress are most likely to cooperate with this group? Why? (remember to consider the VERY important influence of
constituency).
Feel free to come talk to
me about your choices. Iıll be
happy to help. I will also be
happy to help point you in the
right direction for information.
Weıll also talk about sources in class.
Term paper (apx. 15
pages): The term paper
actually comprises three separate assignments. You will break up into groups ranging in size from 3 to 5
students. As a group, you will
choose a piece of legislation and follow it through the legislative
process. In other words, you will
want to examine which members had the most important influence over the content
of the bill and how they exercised power in changing the bill to suit their own
goals. In doing so, you will want
to look at floor debate, conference proceedings, and bill summaries. We can talk further about good sources
for this information as the semester progresses.
Part I: Proposal. Each group will need to submit a ³proposal.² This should be 1-2 pages in length and
should outline which piece of legislation you will examine, what sources you
plan to use, and who seems to have the most influence over this particular
issue. In other words, it will
require some preliminary research.
The proposal is not graded as a separate assignment. Instead, if the proposal is turned in
late, or if the writing, spelling, and grammar are bad enough to warrant a
lowering of the grade, this deduction will be taken from your term paper. Thus, be sure to put some effort into
your proposal.
Part II: Presentation. Youıll notice that the last few weeks of class are dedicated
to student presentations. Each
group will make a 20 minute presentation of their research. The presentation should give the class
an outline of the bill you have chosen and should detail how the bill was
altered, who had the most power in changing the bill, and why. I expect that these will be
well-prepared and documented this is not simply a time for you to get up and
haphazardly summarize your paper.
Part III: Paper. Your group will submit a term paper to me on the day of the
last class meeting. This paper
should be approximately 15 pages in length. When submitting the paper, each individual student must also
turn in a grade for each of the other students in the group based upon the
amount of time and effort that they feel their fellow-group members put into
the project. These will be
considered when giving each group member a grade for the paper. Thus, each member of a group may
receive a different grade for the product the group produces. Do not sit back and let the other group
members do the work for you.
Examinations:
The course also includes
two exams, a midterm and a final.
Each of these exams will include ³identify and discuss the significance
of² questions and essay questions.
I will discuss the format of exams in more detail as the semester
progresses. Some of the exam
material will come from lectures and class discussion, some will come directly
from the reading material. Before
each exam, I will conduct special office hours to allow you to come ask
questions. I highly suggest that
you take advantage of this. The
final exam is NOT cumulative, although concepts from earlier in the semester
will certainly be used in later material.
Schedule:
The following is a list
of topics and reading assignments for the semester. Depending on how the first few weeks progress, I may revise
this schedule.
Week/Date Topic Reading
Assignment
Week 1
1/22/02 INTRO/MEET
EACH OTHER NONE
1/24/02 The
Concept of Representation Article
I of the Constitution
and the Foundersı Intentions ³Federalist
#53, 56, 57, 58, 62, & 63²
(Woll
on reserve at Cowles Library)
Week 2
1/29/02 The
Concept of Representation ³Congress: Representation²
Over
Time (DiClerico
and Hammock on reserve)
Davidson
and Oleszek chapters 1 & 2
1/31/02 Who
runs for Congress? Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 3
Week 3
2/5/02 What
does it take to get elected? Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 4
2/7/02 Congressional
elections: trends ³National
Politics & Congressional Elections²
(Jacobson
on reserve at Cowles Library)
Week 4
2/12/02 Iım
here: Now What? Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 5
The
dual role of a member Start
Price
2/14/02 Learning
the ropes Finish
Price
Week 5
2/19/02 Catch-up/Continue NONE
2/21/02 FIRST
PAPER DUE (Profile of member of Congress)
Congressional behavior and goals Mayhew
(only Part I)
³The
Electoral Connection²
Week 6
2/26/02 Congressional
behavior and goals ³The
Case of the Vanishing Marginals²
Other
Explanations (Fiorina
on reserve at Cowles Library)
Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 9
2/28/02 TERM
PAPER PROPOSAL DUE
Congressional behavior ³Political
Action Committees²
Interest
Groups & Money (Wright
on reserve at Cowles Library)
Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 12
Week 7
3/5/02 Congressional
behavior ³Legislative
Lobbying²
Interest
Groups & Information (Wright
on reserve at Cowles Library)
3/7/02 Catch-up/Continue NONE
Week 8
3/12/02 MIDTERM
EXAM
3/14/02 The
Institutional Congress ³The
Legislative Process²
The
Lawmaking Process (CQ
on reserve at Cowles Library)
Week 9
3/19/02 SPRING
BREAK NO CLASS
3/21/02 SPRING
BREAK NO CLASS
Week 10
3/26/02 The
Institutional Congress Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 8
The
Lawmaking Process Mayhew
(Part II)
3/28/02 SECOND PAPER DUE (Analysis of Interest Group)
The Institutional Congress Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 6
Parties
and Leaders
Week 11
4/2/02 The
Institutional Congress Continued
Parties
and Leaders
4/4/02 The
Institutional Congress Smith
and Deering chapters 1 & 2
Committees Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 7
Week 12
4/9/02 The
Institutional Congress Smith
and Deering chapters 3 & 4
Committees
4/11/02 The
Institutional Congress Smith
and Deering chapter 5
The
Post-Reform Congress
Week 13
4/16/02 The
Institutional Congress ³The
New World of U.S. Senators²
The
Post-Reform Congress (Sinclair
on reserve at Cowles Library)
4/18/02 Catch-up/Continue NONE
Week 14
4/23/02 Congress
and the President Start
Waldman
Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 10
4/25/02 Congress
and the President Finish
Waldman
A
Case Study
Week 15
4/30/02 Congress,
the Bureaucracy, and Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 11
the Courts
5/2/02 PROJECT
PRESENTATIONS
Week 16
5/7/02 PROJECT
PRESENTATIONS
5/9/02 TERM
PAPER DUE
PROJECT PRESENTATIONS Davidson
and Oleszek chapter 15
5/14/02 FINAL
EXAM SCHEDULED FROM 7:30-9:20am