Dr Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey CON6.05

This course is available on the MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Political Science and Political Economy, MSc in Public Administration and Government (LSE and Peking University) and MSc in Public Policy and Administration. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students who are taking GV4C6 Legislative Politics: European Union cannot take this course.

This course provides an advanced analysis of the theory and practice of legislative politics in the United States of America.

This course provides an in-depth analysis of the theory and practice of legislative politics. In the early weeks of the course we examine interests-based and ideology-based theories of legislative politics, theories of committee and party organisation, the role of deliberations in congressional debates and hearings, and the legislative process. Later in the course, we examine the legislative process in more detail, using important episodes in US legislative politics, with topics including Depression era trade conflicts (e.g., the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 and the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934) , congressional activism and partisan polarization, and social issues (abortion).

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT. 3 hours of seminars in the ST.

Students will be required to submit one formative essay in week 6.

Steven S Smith, The American Congress, 4th edn, Cambridge University Press, 2006; Charles Stewart, Analyzing Congress, W W Norton, 2001; D R Mayhew, Congress, The Electoral Connection, Yale University Press, 1974; D R Mayhew, America's Congress: Actions in the Public Sphere, James Madison Through Newt Gingrich, 2000; K T Poole, & H Rosenthal, Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting, Oxford University Press, 1997; R.H. Davidson & W. J. Oleszek, Congress and its Members (CQ Press, 2008); G.W. Cox & M.D. McCubbins, Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the US House of Representatives, Cambridge University Press, 2005 ; G. Mucciaroni & P.J. Quick, Deliberative Choices: Debating Public Policy in Congress (University of Chicago Press, 2006).

Exam (67%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (33%, 4000 words) in the ST.

Two parts: (1) a two-hour unseen written examination in June, accounting for 67% of the mark (consisting of short reply and essay questions); and (2) an essay of 4,000 words on one of the topics, which must apply the theoretical issues to empirical data, to be submitted at the end of Week 1 of ST, accounting for the remaining 33% of the mark.