17.261/262 Congressional Politics II Spring 2014 Tuesday, 1–3 E53-485 Charles Stewart III E53-449 617-253-3127 [email protected] The purpose of this class is to prepare graduate students for professional research into congressional politics in particular and legislatures more generally. When the semester is finished, you should be well enough acquainted with the sweep of the congressional literature, both historical and contemporary, that you could do well on a PhD general exam question about Congress. We will be reading eight books more-or-less in their entirety. Therefore, you should buy them (usually used and cheap), rather than just check them out of the library, and bring them to class when we discuss them. Please buy hard copies, not Kindle editions. Here are the books you should buy: - John Kingdon. 1973. Congressmen’s voting decisions. - Gary W. Cox and Mathew D. McCubbins. 2007. Legislative leviathan, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. - Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer. 2013. Congress Reconsidered, 10th ed., CQ Press. [NB: Make sure you are using the 10th edition. No other edition will do.] - Keith Krehbiel. 1998. Pivotal politics, University of Chicago Press. - Nolan M. McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal. 2006. Polarized America: The dance of ideology and unequal riches, MIT Press. - Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. 2012. It’s even worse than it looks: How the American constitutional system collided with the new politics of extremism, Basic Books. - Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 2007. Ideology and Congress, Transaction Publishers. - David W. Rohde. 1991. Parties and leaders in the post-reform House of Representatives, University of Chicago Press. I will also make available to everyone the second edition of my textbook, Analyzing Congress, at no cost. I expect everyone to be familiar with all of the material covered in the book, since it is the textbook (based on my lectures) that forms the basis of 17.251 (Congress I), which is the prerequisite of this subject. Assignments There are three assignments. 1. Attend all classes, with all the reading done, ready to discuss. I will assign class members to take responsibility for keeping the discussion going, on a rotating basis. There is a lot of reading. Don’t get behind. 2. Discussion agenda memos. You will write brief, one-page memos, circulated by 5pm on the Monday before each class meeting, about the points you want to discuss at the next2 day’s seminar. A list of bullet points is fine. The goal is to get us thinking ahead of time about the topics that interest you. 3. Seminar paper. You will write an empirical paper on one of the topics covered by the syllabus, or any other topic related to Congress that interests you. This should be the first draft of a paper you might want to present at a conference or submit to a journal for publication. You must get my approval of the topic no later than March 14. The paper is due at the end of the semester. Reading Schedule All readings not in the “additional readings” sections of each week are required. The “additional readings” are for your use, in case you are interested in diving in deeper, or you have read some of the required readings before. Mostly, the “additional readings” are intended to group together classic readings we don’t have time to get to into the major topics of the class. You will notice that most weeks have a selection of readings from Dodd and Oppenheimer’s most recent edited volume. The intention is to get you up to speed on current developments in Congress, so that we have a common base of knowledge about recent history. I don’t expect detailed discussion of these readings, unless something catches the fancy of seminar participants. February 4. First class meeting. Organizational matters. February 11. Congressional representation Dodd and Oppenheimer, chapters 4 (Erikson and Wright) and 10 (Volden and Wiseman) Warren Miller and Donald Stokes. 1963. Constituency influence in Congress. American Political Science Review, vol. 57, pp. 45–56. Richard F. Fenno. 1977. U.S. House members and their constituencies: An exploration. American Political Science Review, vol. 71, pp. 883–917. [The book-length treatment is Home Style, which you should be familiar with eventually.] Christopher H. Achen. 1978. Measuring representation. American Journal of Political Science, vol. 22, pp. 475–510. Robert S. Erikson. 1978. Constituency opinion and congressional behavior: A reexamination of the Miller-Stokes representation data. American Journal of Political Science, vol. 22, pp. 511–535. Richard Born. 1990. The shared fortunes of Congress and Congressmen: Members may run from Congress, but they can't hide. Journal of Politics, vol. 52, pp.1223–41. Larry M. Bartels. 1991. Constituency opinion and congressional policy making: The Reagan defense buildup. American Political Science Review, vol. 85, pp. 457–474. James A Stimson, Michael B. MacKuen, and Robert S. Erikson. 1995. Dynamic representation. American Political Science Review, vol. 89, pp. 543–565.3 Charles Cameron , David Epstein, and Sharyn O'Halloran. 1996. Do majority-minority districts maximize substantive black representation in Congress? American Political Science Review, vol. 88, pp. 794–812. Robert H. Durr, John B. Gilmour, and Christina Wolbrecht. 1997. Explaining congressional approval. American Journal of Political Science, vol. 41, pp. 175–207. Seth J. Hill. 2013. Do Primary Electorates Polarize Congress? Working paper. Additional readings Morris P. Fiorina. 1974. Representatives, roll calls, and constituencies. Richard F Fenno. 1978. Home style: House members in their districts. William T Bianco. 1994. Trust: Representatives and constituents. Paul S. Herrnson. 1995. Congressional elections. David C. Kimball and Samuel C. Patterson. 1997. Living up to expectations: Public attitudes toward Congress. Journal of Politics, vol. 59, pp. 701–728. Jane Mansbridge. 1999. Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A contingent “yes.” Journal of Politics, vol. 61, pp. 628–657. February 18. Monday classes today. No class meeting. February 25. Congressional elections Dodd and Oppenheimer, chapters 5 (Jacobson) and 6 (Bernhard and Sulkin). Edward R. Tufte. 1973. The relationship between seats and votes in two-party systems. American Political