| PUBP 840 Doctoral Seminar Fall 2002 |
Professor James P. Pfiffner School of Public Policy |
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GOVERNANCE,
INSTITUTIONS, AND PUBLIC POLICY |
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Texts | Evaluation
| Written Assignments | Course
Outline | Office Hours
This
course is designed to present a doctoral-level survey of the major institutions
of public policy making in the United States with particular emphasis on
Congress, the Presidency, and executive branch bureaucracies.
The seminar is concerned with how public preferences are translated into
public policy and how governmental institutions interact in the separation of
powers system. PUBP 840 is the
first semester in the two course sequence, PUBP 840-841.
The first semester is reading intensive, and its purpose is to expose
doctoral students to a broad range of the scholarly literature on the public
policy process and governmental institutions.
The second semester, PUBP 841, is research and writing intensive and
intended to give students experience in independent research and scholarly
writing. Any doctoral student may
take PUBP 840, but only those who have taken 840 may take 841.
The
course will be conducted as a doctoral seminar, and thus the quality of class
discussions will be critical to the success of the seminar.
All participants will be expected to complete assigned readings before
each class and participate actively in class discussions.
Twenty five percent of the grade for the course will be based on
contributions to class discussions.
Jon
R. Bond and Richard Fleisher, Polarized Politics: Congress and the President
in a Partisan Era (Washington: CQ Books, 2000).
Mayhew,
David, Divided We Govern (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
Pfiffner,
James P., ed., Governance and American Politics (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt
Brace, 1993).
Pfiffner,
James P. ed., The Managerial Presidency
(College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1999).
In
addition, articles and other materials will be required.
Some will be available via e-mail from the
instructor; others will be found in the library or on line.
The approximate weight of the course components will be:
class participation:
25%
short paper #1:
20%
short paper #2:
20%
research paper:
35%
First
paper,
due 1 October:
The
first paper will be 5 to 8 pages in length and will deal with some aspect of
congressional policy making. It
will be based on the course readings (sections 1 through 5) and does not require
additional research beyond the class readings, though additional readings may be
included. The purpose of this
exercise is to engage the ideas of several scholars by comparing and contrasting
different perspectives, frameworks, evidence, data, or methods.
You must deal with at least four separate scholars in the paper.
Second
paper,
due 5 November:
The
second paper will be 5 to 8 pages in length and will deal with some aspect of
presidential or executive branch policy making. It will be based on the course readings (sections six through
12) and does not require additional
research beyond the class readings, though additional readings may be included.
The purpose of this exercise is to engage the ideas of several scholars
by comparing and contrasting different perspectives, frameworks, evidence, data,
or methods. You must deal with at least four separate scholars in the
paper.
Third
Paper:
due 10 December:
The
third paper will be a longer research paper on a topic chosen by the student
from the general areas covered in the course.
It will be 15 to 25 pages in length, exclusive of endnotes and
bibliography. Whereas the first two papers will be based primarily on the
assigned readings for the course, the third paper will be based primarily on the
independent research of each student.
The
purpose of the third paper is to prepare students to engage in a significant
research and writing project as well as to prepare students for the type of work
entailed in writing a dissertation proposal. The paper will include a statement of the research question
and a review of the scholarly
literature on the topic under investigation.
The paper must cite at least three sources from among the course texts.
A one page proposal for the third paper will be due in class on 12
November, and the topic must be approved by the instructor.
There will be oral presentations of the final paper to the class
beginning on 26 November. Finished
copies of the final papers are due on 10 December.
The
paper assignments for the course must be typewritten, double spaced, with pages
numbered. Use at least a 12
point font. Do not put your papers
in special binders or covers; merely staple them together in the upper left hand
corner. As with all written
assignments, be sure to make a hard (non-electronic) copy for your own
files. Use the standard
Chicago Style Manual type of citations for footnotes or endnotes (Turabian), not
the APA style in which names in parentheses refer to a bibliography at the end
of the paper. For examples of the
required endnote style, see Mayhew, Divided We Govern or Pfiffner, The
Managerial Presidency.
The
paper assignments will be discussed further in class.
Outline
of the Course and Assignments
1.
Introduction and overview of the course.
[27 August]
2.
The American Political System: values and institutions
[3 September]
Professional Vita due in class to be turned in.
Assignment:
In Pfiffner, Governance and American Politics:
.
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1
James Madison, Federalist No. 51
Charles A. Beard, “The Constitution as an Economic Document”
John P. Roche, “The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action”
Martin
Diamond, “Democracy and The Federalist: A Reconsideration of the
Framers’ Intent”
Samuel Huntington, “The Gap: The American Creed Versus Political
Authority”
Pfiffner, “Reevaluating the Electoral College” (via e-mail)
Recommended:
Jack Rakove, Original Intentions
John Kingdon, America The Unusual
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
E.E. Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People
David Truman, The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public
Opinion
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America
Seymour Martin Lipset, The First New Nation
S.M. Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Two Edged Sword
Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism
John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, "American Political Institutions
and the Problem of Governance," in John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson
(eds.), Can the Government Govern? (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1989)
S.M. Lipset and Gary Marks, It Didn’t Happen Here
3.
The American Political System: Interest Aggregation and Agenda Building
[10 September]
Assignment:
Pfiffner, Governance and American Politics
James Madison, Federalist No. 10
V.O. Key, Jr., “The Nature and Function of Political Parties”
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “The Short, Happy Life of American Political
Parties”
E.J. Dionne, Jr., “Why Americans Hate Politics”
Robert H. Salisbury, “The Paradox of Interest Groups in Washington --
More groups, Less
Clout”
Hedrick Smith, “Old-Breed Lobbying, New-Breed Lobbying”
Jonathan Rauch, “Demosclerosis”
Recommended:
Jeffery H. Birnbaum, The Lobbyists
Jonathan
Rauch, Demosclerosis
Allan Cigler and Burdett Loomis, Interest Group Politics
Raymond Bauer, Ithiel de Sola Pool and Lewis Dexter,
American
Business and Public Policy: The Politics of Foreign Trade
John R. Wright, Interest Groups and Congress
4.
Congress I: The First Branch - organization and structure
[17
September]
Assignment:
James Madison, Federalist Nos. 57, 62
Nelson W. Polsby, “Political Change and the Character of the
Contemporary Congress”
Nelson W. Polsby, “Congress-Bashing for Beginners”
Morris Fiorina, “The Rise of the Washington Establishment”
Richard Fenno, Jr., “If As Ralph Nader Says, Congress Is ‘The Broken
Branch,’ How Come
We Love Our Congressmen So Much?”
Richard Fleisher and Jon Bond, “Congress and the President in a
Partisan Era,”
(Ch. 1 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 1-8)
Gary C. Jacobson, “Party Polarization in National Politics: The
Electoral Connection,”
(Ch.. 2 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 9-30)
Recommended:
in Lawrence Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer, Congress Reconsidered:
Ornstein,
Peabody, and Rohde, “The U.S. Senate: Toward the Twenty-First Century,”
(Ch.1 in D&O).
Dodd and Oppenheimer, “Revolution in the House: Testing the Limites of
Party Government,” (Ch. 2 in D&O).
Dodd and Oppenheimer, “Congress and the Emerging Order: Conditional
Party Government or Constructive Partisanship?” (No. 17 in D&O).
in Pfiffner, Governance
Brooks Jackson,
“Honest Graft: Why Money Is Important”
Dennis F.
Thompson, “Mediated Corruption: The Case of the Keating Five”
Burdett Loomis, The Contemporary Congress
David Mayhew, The Electoral Connection
George Edwards, At the Margins
Christopher Deering, Congressional Politics
Roger H. Davidson (ed), The Postreform Congress
Nelson W. Polsby, "The Institutionalization of the US House of
Representatives, " APSR
62 (March 1968), pp. 144-168.
Barbara Sinclair, The Transformation of the U.S. Senate
Barbara Sinclair, Unorthodox Lawmaking
John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Moore, Congress as Public Enemy
Robert D. Loevy, “The Presidency and Domestic Policy: The Civil Rights
Act of 1964"
5.
Congress II: Congressional Change and the 1994 “Revolution”
[24 September]
Assignment:
Pfiffner,
“President Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the 104th Congress,” in On
Parties: Essays Honoring Austin Ranney, eds. Nelson W. Polsby and Raymond E.
Wolfinger Berkeley, CA: Institute of Governmental Studies Press, 2000), pp.
135-168. (via e-mail).
John
Aldrich and David Rohde, “The Consequences of Party Organization in the House:
The Role of the Majority and Minority Parties in Conditional Party
Government”
(Ch. 3 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 31-72).
Tim
Groeling and Samuel Kernell, “Congress, the President, and Party Competition
via Network News,” (Ch. 4 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 73-95).
(Skim only)
Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Erika Falk, “Continuity and Change in
Civility in the House,”
(Ch. 5 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 96-108).
George Edwards and Andrew Barrett, “Presidential Agenda Setting in
Congress,”
(Ch. 6 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 109-133).
Barbara
Sinclair, “Hostile Partners: The President, Congress, and Lawmaking in the
Partisan 1990s.” (Ch. 7 in Bond
and Fleisher, pp. 134-153).
Richard
Fleisher and Jon Bond, “Partisanship and the President’s Quest for Votes on
the Floor of Congress,” (Ch. 8 in Bond and Fleisher, pp. 154-200).
Richard
Fleisher and Jon Bond, “Polarized Politics: Does It Matter?” (Ch. 9 in Bond
and Fleisher, pp. 201-214).
Recommended:
Lawrence Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer, Congress Reconsidered
Evans and Oleszek,
“Congressional Tsunami? The Politics of Committee Reform,”
(Ch. 8 in D&O).
Sinclair, “Party Leaders
and the New Legislative Process,” (No. 10 in D&O).
Bader, “The Contract With
America: Origins and Assessments,” (No. 15 in D&O).
Oppenheimer, “Abdicating
Congressional Power: The Paradox of Republican Control,” No.
16 in D&O).
6.
Divided Government I: The Normative Argument
[1 October]
First Paper Due in class
Assignment:
James
Sundquist, “Needed: A Political Theory for
the New Era of Coalition Government in the United States,” (No. 29 in Pfiffner,
Governance)
from Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 103, No. 4 (1988) pp.
613-635.
Available in JSTOR through GMU Library website.
Mayhew, Divided We Govern, Ch. 1-4, pp. 1-99.
In Pfiffner, The Managerial Presidency
George Edwards, “Director
or Facilitator?: Presidential Policy Control of Congress”
Roger Porter, “The
President and the National Agenda”
Recommended:
Paul Light, Forging Legislation
Paul Light, Artful Work
James Sundquist, The Decline and Resurgence of Congress
Pfiffner, "President Clinton and the 103rd Congress: Winning Battles
and Losing Wars,"
in Rivals for Power:
Presidential-Congressional Relations, edited by James Thurber
(Washington: CQ Press, 1996), pp. 170-190. [available
via e-mail]
7.
Divided Government II: The Empirical Evidence
[8 October]
Assignment:
Mayhew, Divided We Govern, Ch. 5, 6, 7, pp. 100-200
George C. Edwards III, “The Legislative Impact of Divided
Government,”
American Journal of Political Science Vol. 41. No. 2 (April 1997),
pp. 545-563.
[in JSTOR]
Sarah Binder, “The Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock, 1947-1996
American Political Science Review,
Vol. 93, No. 3 (Sept. 1999), pp. 519-533.
[in JSTOR]
Pfiffner,
“President and Congress at the Turn of the Century: Structural Sources of
Conflict,” in Rivals for Power, 2nd ed. James Thurber ed.
(Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002). [Via e-mail.]
Charles O. Jones, “The Presidency in a Separates System,” in Pfiffner,
TMP, Ch. 19.
Recommended:
Morris Fiorina, Divided Government
Gary Cox and Samuel Kernell, The Politics of Divided Government
Pfiffner, "Divided Government and the Problem of Governance,"
in James Thurber, ed. Divided Democracy
Peter F. Galderisi, ed. Divided Government
John Gilmour, Strategic Disagreement
Gary C. Jacobson, The Electoral Origins of Divided Government
[15 October: Columbus Day
recess, no class.]
8.
The Presidency I: Institution and Politics
[22 October]
Assignment:
Pfiffner, The Managerial Presidency
James P. Pfiffner, “Can the President Manage the Government?” (Ch. 1)
Hugh Heclo, “The Changing Presidential Office” (Ch. 2)
Richard E. Neustadt, “Does the White House Need a Strong Chief of
Staff?” (Ch. 5)
James P. Pfiffner, “The President’s Chief of Staff: Lessons
Learned” (Ch. 6)
Samuel Kernell, “The Evolution of the White House Staff” (Ch. 3)
Richard E. Neustadt, “Memorandum on Staffing the President-Elect”
(Ch. 4) (skim)
Matthew Holden, Jr., “Why Entourage Politics is Volatile” (Ch. 7)
(skim)
Recommended articles in:
Pfiffner, Governance and American Politics
Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 70 [in Pfiffner]
Richard Neustadt, “The Power to Persuade”
James
P. Pfiffner, “White House Staff Versus the Cabinet: Centripetal and
Centrifugal Roles”
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “After the Imperial Presidency”
Michael Genovese, “Watergate and the Collapse of the Nixon
Presidency,”
Hugh Heclo, “What Has Happened to the Separation of Powers?”
William Rehnquist, “Presidential Appointments: The Mixed Record of
Court Packing,”
Recommended books:
James P. Pfiffner, The Modern Presidency
Charles O. Jones, The Presidency in a Separated System
John Hart, The Presidential Branch
Bradley Patterson, The Ring of Power
Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents
James P. Pfiffner, The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground
Running
Stephen Hess, Organizing the Presidency
James P. Pfiffner and Gordon Hoxie, eds. The Presidency in Transition
Samuel Kernell and Samuel Popkin, Chief of Staff
Colin Campbell, Managing the Presidency
Bert Rockman, The Leadeship Question
Pfiffner, "Establishing the Bush Presidency," PAR
(Jan/Feb 90)
Pfiffner, "White House Staff Versus the Cabinet,"
Presidential Studies Quarterly (Fall 1986)
Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 1996
Charles Wolcott and Karen Hult, Governing the White House
James P. Pfiffner and Roger H. Davidson, eds., Understanding the
Presidency
9.
The Presidency II: Politics and Policy Making
(29 October)
Assignment:
Elaine Kamark, “Structure as Strategy: Presidential Nominating Politics
in the Post-Reform Era,” in Pfiffner, Governance.
Pfiffner, The Managerial Presidency
Peri E. Arnold, “The Managerial Presidency’s Changing Focus” (Ch.
13)
Ronald C. Moe, “At Risk: The President’s Role as Chief Manager”
(Ch. 15)
Steven Kelman, “White House-Initiated Management Change” (Ch. 14)
Pfiffner, “American Tradition of Administrative Reform,” in The
White House and the Blue House: Government Reform in the United States and Korea
eds., Yong Hyo Cho and H. George Frederickson (Lanham, MD: University Press of
America, 1998).
(via e-mail).
Recommended:
John Bond and Richard Fleisher, The President in the Legislative Arena
Paul Light, The President's Agenda
Michael Mezey, Congress, the President, and Public Policy
Mark Peterson, Legislating Together
Robert Spitzer, President and Congress: Executive Hegemony at the
Crossroads of American
Government
Pfiffner, "The President's Legislative Agenda," The Annals
(September 1988), pp. 22-35.
Pfiffner, "President Clinton and the 103rd Congress" in James
Thurber,ed. Presidential-
Congressional Relations
Pfiffner, "The President and the Postreform Congress," in Roger
Davidson, ed. The
Postreform Congress
10.
Bureaucracy I: Political
Control of the Executive Branch
[5 November]
Second Paper Due in Class
Assignment:
Hugh Heclo, “OMB and Neutral Competence” (Ch. 8 in TMP)
Terry M. Moe, “The Politicized Presidency” (Ch. 9 in TMP)
Joel Aberbach and Bert Rockman, “Mandates or Mandarins?” (Ch. 10 in
TMP)
Elliot Richardson and James Pfiffner, “Politics and Performance” (Ch.
11 in TMP)
Patricia Ingraham, “Political Direction and Policy Change in Three
Departments (Ch. 12)
Recommended:
Paul C. Light, The True Size of Government
Paul C. Light, The Tides of Reform
Patricia Ingraham, The Foundation of Merit
Norma
Ricucci, Unsung Heroes
William Gormley, Taming the Bureaucracy
Hugh Heclo, A Government of Strangers
Patricia Ingraham and Donald Kettl, eds. Agenda for Excellence
11.
Bureaucracy II: The
Executive Branch Bureaucracies
[12 November]
Assignment:
Pfiffner, Governance
Francis E. Rourke, “Bureaucracy in the American Constitutional Order”
James Q. Wilson, “The Changing FBI -- The Road to Abscam”
James Q. Wilson, “Bureaucracy”
Pfiffner, James P. “Government Legitimacy and the Role of the Civil
Service,” in James P. Pfiffner and Douglas A. Brook, eds. The Future of
Merit Twenty Years after the Civil Service Reform Act. (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2001) via e-mail.
Recommended:
B. Guy Peters, The Future of Governing
Richard J. Stillman, The American Bureaucracy
James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy
Harold Seidman, Politics, Position, and Power
National Commission on the Public Service, (The Volcker Commission), Leadership
for America and Task Force Report, "Politics and Performance:
Strengthening the Executive Leadership System," by Elliot L. Richardson and
James P. Pfiffner.
Peri Arnold, Making the Managerial Presidency
Paul C. Light, Thickening Government
13.
Homeland Security and Federalism
[19 November]
Assignment:
Homeland Security: to be announced
Selections from Public Administration Review, Vol. 62, Special
Issue on Homeland Security (September 2002).
In Pfiffner, Governance:
James Madison,
Federalist No. 39.
James Sundquist,
“American Federalism: Evolution, Status, and Prospects”
Morton Grodzins, “The Federal System”
Pfiffner, “Federalism and
the Devolution of Social Policy in the United States”
[via e-mail]
14.
Research Paper Presentations
[26 November]
15.
Research Paper Presentations
[3 December]
Paper number three is due on
December 10
Pfiffner
___________________________________________________________________________
Tuesdays: 2:30 - 4pm
Wednesdays: 2:30 - 4pm
Thursdays: 2:30 - 4pm
Office: 218 Finley
Phone:
703-993-1417
E-mail:
pfiffner@gmu.edu
To search for political science
articles:
1.
Go to GMU home page
click on Libraries and Research
2.
On right side of screen
click on databases
3.
On GMU Databases screen (letters appear at bottom from A through Z)
click on I
4.
University Database Wizard screen
scroll down to “Info Trac One File”, click on it
5.
Do key word search - type in
title or part of it
e.g. “Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock”
Sarah Binder, American Political Science Review (September 1999).
e.g. “Legislative Impact of Divided Government,”
George Edwards, et. al. American Journal of Political Science
(April 1997).
6.
Print out article or save to disk.
Or find JSTOR on the Library website and do a search.