CHRISTOPHER J. DEERING
Department of Political Science
The George Washington University
Washington, D.C. 20052
Telephone: (202) 994-6564
E-mail:
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Academic
Professor of Political Science, 1998-
The George Washington University
Courses include: Legislative Politics, Introduction to American Government, American Political Process, Interest-Group Politics, Executive-Legislative Relations, Positive Theories of American Government, Domestic Public Policy, Congress and Foreign Policy, Congress and National Security Policy, Positive Theories of American Political Institutions, Systematic Inquiry/Research Design, Methods of Political Analysis.
Associate Professor of Political Science
The George Washington University, 1985-1998
Assistant Professor of Political Science
The George Washington University, 1978-1985.
Instructor in Political Science
The George Washington University, Spring 1978
Administrative
Senior Associate Dean and Associate Provost, 2013 – present. Management, planning, and operations at the Virginia Science and Technology Campus and the Virginia Educational Centers in Arlington, Alexandria, and Hampton Roads.
Academic Placement Director, 2009 – 2013. Responsibilities include counseling, representing, and “coaching” PhD students who are on the academic job market.
Subfield Coordinator, American Politics, 2008 – 2012. Duties include advising American politics graduate students, coordinating and participating in comprehensive examinations, planning seminar scheduling, and participating on the graduate admissions committee.
Chair, Department of Political Science, 2002 – 2008 Responsible for all aspects of departmental administration – including budgeting, personnel, recruitment, planning, and development – for a department with 43 full time tenured and tenure track members, 40-60 part time instructors, and a doctoral program of 100 students. Primary reporting responsibilities were to the Dean of Columbian College of Arts and Science with additional reporting responsibilities to the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs.
Associate Dean for Budget and Planning, Columbian College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University, 1990-1994. Responsibilities: Prepared and managed $35 million budget (1994 dollars), coordinated space and facilities planning, managed departmental equipment purchases, assisted in the merger of formerly independent undergraduate college and graduate school (including drafting of new bylaws), and acted as Dean’s liaison to the Curriculum Committee,
Director of Academic Planning and Development, Congressional Fellowship Program, American Political Science Association, 1989-1998. Responsibilities: Perform as academic advisor to the fellowship Program, plan and execute annual selection process, help plan and execute fund raising and development activities, represent the Association and Program on the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship Board.
Academic Director, Master of Arts in Legislative Affairs, 1978-1993. Responsibilities: Performed as academic adviser for 35-50 MA candidates, managed curriculum development, planned course schedules, recruited and appointed program faculty, and participated in all program promotional activities.
Professional
Legislative Aide, George J. Mitchell, U.S. Senate, 1984-85. (Under the auspices of the American Political Science Association's Congressional Fellowship Program.) Areas of responsibility: foreign and defense policy, agriculture, fisheries and marine policy, and labor.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1979. Fields of Study: American Politics (National Institutions), International Relations, and Public Law. Dissertation: Arms Transfers and Congressional Policy Making (Roger H. Davidson, Director).
M.A. in Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1975. Fields of Study: American Politics, International Relations, Public Law, and Political Theory.
B.A. in Political Science, University of Southern California, 1974.
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
Interest Groups Unleashed, Paul Herrnson, Christopher J. Deering, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. Washington, D.C.: Sage/CQ Press. (2012)
Committees in Congress, Christopher J. Deering and Steven S. Smith. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 3rd ed. 1997, 2nd ed. 1990, 1st ed. 1984. Translated into Portuguese as Comissoes Do Congresso Dos Estados Unidos (Brazil: Centro Grafico de Senado Federal, 1986) and excerpted in David C. Kozak and John D. Macartney, Congress and Public Policy: A Sourcebook of Documents and Readings, 2nd ed. (Chicago: The Dorsey Press, 1987).
Congressional Politics, Christopher J. Deering, ed. Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1989.
Arms Transfers and Congressional Policy Making, Christopher J. Deering, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, December 1979.
Articles and Chapters
“Constitutional Choices: Uncertainty and Institutional Design in Democratizing Nations,” co-authored by Jai Kwan Jung. International Political Science Review. November 20, 2013 (online).
“Oversight Over Time and Across Committees: An Operational Measure of Police Patrols and Fire Alarms.” Steven J. Balla, co-author. Congress & The Presidency. 40 (2013): 27-40.
“Introduction,” in Paul Herrnson, Christopher J. Deering, and Clyde Wilcox, Interest Groups Unleashed. Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2012: xiv-xx.
“More Bang for the Buck: Defense Industry Contributions and the 2010 Elections,” Jake Haselswerdt and Christopher J. Deering, in Paul Herrnson, Christopher J. Deering, and Clyde Wilcox, Interest Groups Unleashed. Washington D.C.: Sage/CQ Press, 2012: 225-234.
“Interest Groups Unleashed: Beyond the 2010 Election Cycle,” Paul S. Herrnson, Christopher J. Deering, and Clyde Wilcox, Interest Groups Unleashed. Washington D.C.: Sage/CQ Press, 2012: 69-92.
“Who Makes the News? Cabinet Visibility from 1897 to 2006,” co-authored with Lee Sigelman. Issues in Governance Studies, No. 42, November 2011, 1-14.
“Congress’s Role in Foreign Policy Making,” in Guy Ziv, Readings in US Foreign Policy Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing. 2011. This is a reprint of a paper delivered at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in 2009.
“State Opposition to REAL ID,” co-authored by Priscilla M. Regan. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 39 (Summer 2009): 476-505.
“Determinants of House Committee Chair Selection: Republicans Play Musical Chairs in the 107th Congress,” co-authored by Paul J. Wahlbeck. American Politics Research 34 (March 2006): 1-20.
“Foreign Affairs and War,” in The Legislative Branch and American Democracy: Institutions and Performance. Eds. Paul Quirk and Sarah Binder. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005. Pp. 349-381.
“Musical Chairs: Interest Groups, Campaign Fundraising, and Selection of House Committee Chairs,” co-authored with Paul R. Brewer. The Interest Group Connection: Electioneering, Lobbying, and Policymaking in Washington. Paul S. Herrnson, Ronald G. Shaiko, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. 2005: 141-164.
“La Evolucion del Parlamento Americano” (“Evolution of America’s Parliament”), co-authored with Connie A. Veillette, in El Parlamento En El Tiemp. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Eusko Legebiltzarra, 2003, 421-450.
“Ebb and Flow in Twentieth-Century Committee Power,” The United States Congress: A Century of Change, ed. Sunil Ahuja and Robert Dewhirst. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003: 137-156.
“The Rhetoric of Presidential Veto Messages,” co-authored by Lee Sigelman and Jennifer L. Saunders. Contemporary Presidential Studies: A Reader. Robert P. Watson, ed. New York: Nova History Publications. 2002: 73-91.
“Alarms and Patrols: Legislative Oversight in Foreign and Defense Policy.” Congress and the Politics of Foreign Policy. Nicol C. Rae, John Stack, and Colton C. Campbell, eds. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 2003: 112-138.
“’Wading Knee Deep in Words, Words, Words’: Senatorial Rhetoric in the Johnson and Clinton Impeachment Trials,” co-authored by Lee Sigelman and Burdett A. Loomis. Congress & the Presidency 28 (Autumn 2001): 119-139.
“The Rhetoric of Presidential Veto Messages.” co-authored by Lee Sigelman and Jennifer L. Saunders. White House Studies. Vol. 1, No. 2, 2001: 145 - 165.
“Principle or Party? Foreign and National Security Policy Making in the Senate.” The Myth of Cool Judgment Partisanship and Ideology in the Contemporary Senate. Colton C. Campbell and Nicol C. Rae, eds. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2001: 43-61.
“The Politics of Executive Orders: Legislative Constraints on Presidential Power,” co-authored by Forrest Maltzman, Political Research Quarterly (December 1999): 767-783.
“Learning to Legislate: Committees in the Republican Congress,” in New Majority or Old Minority? The Impact of the Republicans on Congress. Colton C. Campbell and Nicol C. Rae, eds. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999: 91-113.
“Career Advancement and Subcommittee Chairs in the U.S. House of Representatives: 86th to 103rd Congresses,” American Politics Quarterly 24 (January 1996): 3-23.
“Congress, The President, and Automatic Government: The Case of Military Base Closures,” in James A. Thurber, ed., Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1996), 153-169.
“Specializing in Congress: Finding Your Niche,” in Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide, Congressional Management Foundation, 104th Congress edition, 1994, pp. 43-76.
“Decision Making in the Armed Services Committees,” in Randall Ripley and James Lindsay, eds., Congress Resurgent: Foreign and Defense Policy on Capitol Hill (University of Michigan Press, 1993): 155-182.
“Congress, The President and War Powers: The Perennial Debate,” in James A. Thurber, ed., Divided Democracy: Cooperation and Conflict Between the President and Congress (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1990): 171-197. (This piece also appears as American University Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies Working Paper No. 89-8.)
“Congressional Politics: An Introduction and An Approach,” pp. 1-13, in Congressional Politics, Christopher J. Deering, ed. (Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1989).
“National Security Policy and Congress,” pp. 284-305, in Congressional Politics, Christopher J. Deering, ed. (Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1989).
“Congress, The President, and Military Policy,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 499 (September 1988): 136-147.
“Damned If You Do and Damned If You Don't: The Senate's Role in the Confirmation Process,” in G. Calvin Mackenzie, ed., The Inners and Outers (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987): 100-119.
“Leadership in the Slow Lane,” PS 19 (Winter 1986): 37-42.
“Subcommittee Government” (co-authored with Steven S. Smith), in Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds., Congress Reconsidered, 3rd edition, (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1985):
189-210.
“Congress and Foreign Policy: Toward A More Functional Analysis,” Congress & the Presidency 10 (Autumn 1983): 241-249.
“Changing Motives for Committee Preferences of New Members of the U.S. House,” (Co-authored with Steven S. Smith) Legislative Studies Quarterly 8 (May 1983): 271-282.
“Subcommittee Government in the U.S. House: An Analysis of Bill Management,” Legislative Studies Quarterly 7 (November 1982):
533-546.
“Majority Party Leadership and the New House Subcommittee System (Co-authored with Steven S. Smith), in Frank H. Mackaman, ed., Understanding Congressional Leadership (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1981): 261-292.
Working Papers
“Who Makes the News? Cabinet Visibility from 1897 to 2006,” to be submitted to Presidential Studies Quarterly.
“Salience, Complexity, and State Resistance to Federal Mandates,” Steven J. Balla and Christopher J. Deering. (Conditionally accepted by Journal of Public Policy).
Reports, Entries, and Reviews
Editor, “The Committee System,” Chapter 16 of The Guide to Congress. CQ Press: Washington DC (Sixth Edition), 2008: 625-672, (Seventh Edition), 2012, forthcoming.
“In Memoriam: Lee Sigelman,” co-authored with Forrest Maltzman. PS: Political Science and Politics. 43 (July 2010): 588-590.
“Institutional Challenges—Congress,” in Divided Diplomacy and the Next Administration: Conservative and Liberal Alternatives, Henry R. Nau and David Shambaugh, eds. Washington, D.C., Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, 2004: 41-46.
“Why Congressional Reforms Fail: Reelection and the House Committee System,” E. Scott Adler, in Journal of Legislative Studies 9 (2004).
"Armed Services Committee, House,” and "Armed Services Committee, Senate,” in Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, Donald C. Bacon, Roger H. Davidson, and Morton Keller, eds. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995: 90-93 and 93-96.
Leadership in Committee, C. Lawrence Evans and The Emergence of a Senate Leader: Pete Domenici and the Reagan Budget, Richard F. Fenno, Jr. in American Political Science Review 87 (March 1993): 212-213.
The New American Politician, Burdett Loomis, in Congress & the Presidency 17 (Spring, 1990): 79-81.
“The Budget Process”, in The View from the Capitol Hill: Lawmakers on Congressional Reform, Center for Responsive Politics (Washington DC, 1989): 45-53.
Congress Speaks--A Survey of the 100th Congress. Center for Responsive Politics. Report written by Peter Lindstrom with statistical information compiled by Christopher J. Deering and Linda L. Fisher. (1988)
To Serve The People: Congress and Constituency Service, John R. Johannes, in Congress & the Presidency 12 (Spring 1985): 84-85.
“Senate Confirmation,” in The National Academy of Public Administration, The Presidential Appointee's Handbook, (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Public Administration, 1985): 25-35.
“Career Advancement and Subcommittee Chairs,” in Legislative Studies Section Newsletter 8 (April 1985): 20-21.
Clipped Wings: The American SST Conflict, Mel Horwitch, in Congress & the Presidency 9 (Autumn 1982): 122-123.
Congress and the Politics of U.S. Foreign Economic Policy, 1929-1976, Robert A. Pastor, in American Political Science Review 75 (September 1981): 781-782.
Foreign Policy By Congress, Thomas M. Franck and Edward Weisband, American Political Science Review 74 (September 1980): 822-823.
Papers Presented at Professional Meetings
“Who Makes the News? Cabinet Visibility from 1897 to 2006,” co-authored with Lee Sigelman. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, Washington, September 2, 2011.
“Partisanship, Sectionalism, and Policy Change: The Case of the National Army,” co-authored by Rachel Paine Caufield, and Jason A. MacDonald. Presented at the History of Congress Conference, UC Berkeley, June 10, 2010.
“State Resistance to Federal Mandates: A Cross-Case Analysis,” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, Canada, August 2009.
“Congress’s Role in Foreign Policymaking.” Presented at “The Role of Congress in Foreign Policymaking,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., May 18, 2009.
“Constitutional Choices,” co-authored by Jai Kwan Jung. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Chicago, Illinois, April 2009.
“The Contours of Foreign and Defense Oversight in the Post-World War II Era,” co-authored with Matthew A. Steele (PhD Student), for the Center for the Study of the Presidency’s Project on National Security. May 2008.
“Congress and Foreign Policy Making in the 21st Century: The Case of U.S.-Korea Relations.” Prepared for presentation at the Korean Association of International Studies Conference, “The Second-Term Bush Administration and ROK-US Relations.” Seoul, Korea, March 24-25, 2005.
“Foreign Affairs and War,” Presented at the Institutions of American Democracy Project hosted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2004.
“Evolution of the American Parliament,” (co-authored with Connie Veillette) prepared for the “History of Parliament” seminar, Basque Parliament, Vitoria, Spain, January 14th and 16th, 2003. (To be published as part of the proceedings from the conference.)
“Determinants of House Committee Chair Selection: Republicans Play Musical Chairs in the 107th Congress.” Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, April 2002 (with Paul Wahlbeck).