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Political Science 4110/Congress
Douglas Young
Fall, 2015
Office: 148 Loyd Strickland/Academic II Building; 678-717-3872;
On Facebook: “GSC Politically Incorrect Club” and “UNG Chess Club: Gainesville Campus”
Office Hours: Mondays Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays Fridays
9-10 9-11 9-10 9-11 9-10
2:15-5 1:15-2 2:15-5 1:15-2
3:20-5 3:20-5
Course Description: This course studies all things congressional: its creation, constitutional responsibilities, structure, history, leadership, committees, subcommittees, lawmaking process, elections, interest groups, lobbyists, relationships with the press and constituents, and many other factors contributing to our understanding of Congress.
Recommended Reading: Davidson, Oleszek, Lee, & Schickler’sCongress and its Members, 14th or 15thedition, Sage/Congressional Quarterly Press, 2015.
Figuring your final course grade: With three tests and a paper each counting as one-fourth of your final course grade, and using the standard 10-point grading scale, here are how many points you need to earn this semester for each grade: A = 360 points; B = 320 points;
C = 280 points; D = 240 points F = under 240 points.
Tests: Please bring a pen for each test which will cover about a third of the course material.
On each test you will write three essays. Each test will also have at least 10 one-point fill-in-the-blank extra credit questions covering material in the assigned readings not discussed in class.
Make-up Tests: If you miss a test, you must PROMPTLY justify your absence. Written documentation from your doctor, hospital, etc. is strongly preferred for Dr. Young to decide if you can take a make-up test. If the absence is unjustified, your test grade is O. ONLY if Dr. Young decides the absence was absolutely unavoidable can you takeamake-uptestassoonaspossibleonyourFIRSTdaybackoncampus.
Research Paper: The first class will explain this project’s mandates. Here are the most important.
*Write about any approved topic related to Congress. Have a clear thesis statement in your first paragraph and use your research and analysis to prove it. Choose a subject that excites you and about which you want to read, learn, think, and write at length. Here are just 30 of an infinite number of possible worthy topics for a research paper on Congress:
-how a law you find most intriguing was enacted
-the influence of a particular past or present U.S. representative or senator
-how Congress has/not influenced a significant public policy issue
-how one or more congressional policies has/have impacted state and/or local ones
-explaining how a particular president was/not an effective legislative leader
-analyzing what you see as failures of Congress and how you think Congress can work better
-studying the changing balance of power between Congress and the presidency
-exploring the changing balance of power between Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court
-detailing what you see as a major influence on congressional behavior
-studying the evolution of party leaders in the house or senate or profiling one such leader
-examining a committee or subcommittee in the house or senate
-studying major factors influencing one or more congressmen’s or senator’s legislative votes
-analyzing the news media’s or one media outlet’s impact on Congress and/or any bill
-exploring how social media have affected Congress
-explaining the role/s played by one or more interest groups vis-à-vis Congress or one bill
-explaining the impact of public opinion on a bill or Congress more broadly
-explaining the impact of congressional action on public opinion regarding one or more issues
-exploring corruption in Congress: as a body, one type, or that of one congressman or senator
-examining a particular faction in Congress (the southern bloc, conservative coalition, liberals,
Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Women’s Caucus, etc.)
-analyzing Congress as a launch pad for presidential candidates
-study how well you think a congressional career does/not prepare one to be a good president
-show how our rapidly changing demographics have impacted congressional elections and laws
-detail the changing demographics of congressmen and senators
-exploring the roles and/or influence of congressional and/or senatorial staffers
-examining factors influencing the outcome of congressional and senatorial elections
-analyzing the impact of presidential elections on congressional and senatorial elections
-researching the influence of gerrymandering on congressional elections and/or policy-making
-study a particular house or senate election campaign, analyzing why it succeeded or failed
-show how different pre-congressional careers may affect how representatives or senators vote
-compare and contrast Congress with other major national legislatures around the world
*The deadline to present your detailed, WRITTEN proposed topic outline to discuss with Dr. Young during his office hours is Tuesday, September 15, 2015.
***FailuretoturninanapprovedtopicoutlinebythedeadlineearnsaOforthisentireproject.
*You canNOT write about a subject you wrote a paper on for another class of Dr. Young.
*The deadline to turn in your first draft of the paper is Tuesday, October 27, 2015.
*The deadline to turn in your final draft is Tuesday, November 17, 2015. Each day a paper is late will result in a reduction of one letter grade.
*The paper needs a title page, a table of contents page, and at least 10 FULL, double-spaced, typedpages of your text in Times New Roman 12 font with a one-inch margin on all four sides.
*Cite at least fivescholarlysources (academic or highly regarded books relevant to your topic and/or academic journal articles -- print or on line), and no more than five non-academic books, magazines, newspapers, or web sites). Wikipedia is not an appropriate source. See Dr. Young if you are unsure about any sources.
*Write in complete sentences in formal paragraph essay style throughout the entire paper.
*At the absolute most, there should be no more than 10 lines of quoted material in the paper.
*Footnoteallquoted materialand ALL specific facts. The more footnotes you have from a wide variety of scholarly sources, the better. This shows you have done a lot of research. The footnoting format used by most UNG political science classes is APA.
*Make sure you have a good bibliography documenting all your sources in detail.
***Too many grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors will earn an F for this paper.
To avoid losing points for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors on tests and the paper:
Spell every word correctly.
Write in complete sentences.
Make sure you have subject-verb agreement in every sentence.
Write in paragraphs, but not one-sentence ones since none of us is Ernest Hemingway.
Do not turn in a full-page paragraph because none of us is William Faulkner, either.
Make sure to indent five spaces to note the start of each new paragraph.
Do not use abbreviations, except for “etc.”
Write out “and,” “because,” “with,” and “within” -- do not use the informal symbols.
Spell out a number if it is below 10, like one, two, three, etc.
Use Arabic when using a double-digit number like 10, 11, 12, etc.
Spell out any number that is the first word of a sentence.
Write one-third, not 1/3
Avoid contractions like don’t, can’t, won’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t, it’s, we’d, you’d, etc.
“Alot” is not a word.
Do not end sentences with prepositions: in, on, of, by, for, with, within, into, under, etc.
Write 95 percent, not 95%.
Always capitalize our Constitution, Congress, and Supreme Court.
Do not write “I feel.” Since this is an intellectual exercise, I think, believe, contend, etc.
Profanity, crude language, and their abbreviations are unacceptable in any academic prose.
“Lol,” “smh,” “omg,” and other informal writing is also inappropriate in academic writing.
Get right to your point. Do not waste time restating a test question. I know it since I wrote it.
Do not go off on tangents that are irrelevant to the test question or your research paper’s topic.
Write legibly on tests. If I cannot understand your writing, I will not read it and you will earn a 0.
If you know your penmanship is poor, please ask to TYPE your test essays before the first test.
WRITE PRACTICE ESSAYS AND LET ME PRACTICE GRADE THEM FOR YOU.
Class Attendance: Woody Allen: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
A solid record of punctual regular class attendance will go a long way in determining borderline (79+, 89+) grades at the end of the semester.
You alone are responsible for getting class notes for any class you miss.
Barring a legitimate emergency, a student can leave class early only if he has received Dr. Young’s permission before the period began.
Taping of classes is not allowed without Dr. Young’s permission pursuant to receiving documented proof of a student’s relevant learning disability. The contents of Dr. Young’s lectures are solely the legal intellectual property of Dr. Young.
No beepers, cell phones, or texting are allowed in Dr. Young’s class without his permission.
Because an essential element in any well-rounded college education consists of students being exposed to and challenged by competing perspectives, a wide variety of controversial subject matter will be discussed openly in a free and frank manner consistent with academic freedom protected by the Free Expression Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, anyone easily offended and/or opposed to freedom of speech should NOT take this class.
Academic Honesty: Cheating on a test or plagiarism on your paper earns a 0 for that grade.
Severe Weather Policy: In the event of snow, freezing rain, or the wrath of God, listen to WDUN (550 AM; 102.9 FM) or WSB (750 AM) to learn if UNG wimped out and canceled class.
Withdrawals: Withdrawing by the midterm earns a final grade of W (withdrawn, no F). After that, absent documented extraordinary personal difficulties, you get a WF (withdrawn, failing).
Questions and Difficulties: Please ask me questions about any aspect of the class at any time.
STUDY GUIDE
Constitutional creation of Congress in 1787: Please read Preface, Chapters 1 and 2
-goals -structure -powers -checks and balances -Charles-Louis Montesquieu impact
-Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s Democratic-Republican Party vision of Congress
-Alexander Hamilton and John Adams’ Federalist Party vision of Congress
History of Congress: Please read Chapter 2
-main policy-maker until FDR’s New Deal in 1933 -1933-95 Democratic Party dominance
-1937-1970s conservative coalition era of Southern Democrats and non-Southern Republicans
-more divided party control since 1980s -increased partisanship, especially since 1995
Elections: Please read Chapters 3 and 4
-gerrymandering: partisan and racial -recruiting candidates -winning the party primary
-general election strategies -parties -funding campaigns -interest groups and PACs
-media: newspapers, TV and radio news, talk radio, Internet websites, social media
-re-election strategies/advantages: -getting choice committees -far more press coverage
-pork barrel -constituent services -free travel, offices, staff, and capitol TV studio
-franking privilege -more interest group support -typically far more campaign funds
-colleagues’ and possibly presidential endorsements and fund-raising -gerrymandering
-name recognition -low voter turnout -growth of government delivering more goods
-re-election disadvantages: -unpopular congressional votes -anti-incumbency tides
-party linked to unpopular president and/or congressional leaders -gerrymandering
-a close last re-election may prompt better challengers who can raise more money
-other party may see incumbent as vulnerable and devote more resources to defeat him
-being “primaried” by a challenger more in line with the party’s core ideological voters
-some recent Tea Party challengers successfully primaried GOP incumbents
Representatives and Senators: Please read Chapters 5 and 9
-membership profiles -trustees v. delegates -ideologues v. more moderate compromisers
-loyal partisans v. independents -House v. Senate -Congress as presidential launch pad
-national v. state/local priorities -achieving legislative goals v. desire to get re-elected
-dealing with district/state and national press -social media
-constituent services: -steering federal projects, contracts, and money to home district/state
-helping constituents get federal benefits, cut through bureaucracy, etc. -answering mail
-going home regularly to see constituents and hear their concerns: town hall meetings
Differences between the House and Senate: -district v. state representation -gerrymandering
-size of legislative bodies -terms -staggered elections in senate -leadership -staff
-senate confirmation of presidential nominees for justices, judges, cabinet secretaries,
undersecretaries, Federal Reserve Board members, ambassadors, and other federal offices
-senate ratifying, amending, or rejecting presidential treaties
-the House can impeach and the Senate can convict federal officials for high crimes
-1868 President Andrew Johnson impeachment/senate trial -ditto Bill Clinton in 1998-99
-far more rules governing house debate -far more minority party rights in senate
-far more informality and individualism celebrated in senate
-the senate filibuster -many filibusters in 1950s and 1960s against civil rights bills
-the filibuster as senate norm since the 1990s -the power of the threat of a filibuster
-cloture to end a filibuster
-have C-SPAN, cable TV networks, and social media revived the filibuster’s popularity?
-Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz stage filibusters and launch presidential campaigns
-greater prestige of senate due to its greater power -the senate launching presidential runs
-but senators are far more vulnerable to being defeated for re-election
Leaders: Please read Chapter 6 -House Speaker -House Majority Leader
-House Majority Whips (chief, deputy, and regional) -House Minority Leader and Whips
-Senate Majority Leader -Senate Majority Whip -Senate Minority Leader and Whips
-evolution of congressional party leaders’ power: -rising in late 19th century
-peaking in early 20th century -limited from 1910 to 1973
-much more powerful from 1973-1995 -still more powerful since 1995
-yet so many factors can still weaken leaders: -increasingly independent members
-more members who are less willing to compromise ideology with partisan demands
-more pervasive 24/7 press coverage helps create independent media star members
Committees: Please read Chapters 6 and 7
-history: -rise of permanent committees in early 19th century
-the dominance of committee chairmen from 1910-1970s -declining clout since late 1970s
-still less power since 1995 -how to get on preferred committees – and stay on them
-committeeresponsibilities -how to become a chairman or ranking minority member today
-subcommittee responsibilities -how to become a chairman or ranking minority member
-select committees -joint committees -conference committees
House and Senate Party Caucuses: Please read Chapter 6
-weak under committee system from 1910-70s
-major resurgence from 1973-95 -more influenced by leaders since 1995
Lawmaking: -Please read Chapters 8, 9, 14, and 15
-writing bills -referring them to proper committee/s -subcommittee roles
-committee roles -Rules Committee impact -floor debates -floor amendments
-floor votes -conference committee revisions to bills -final floor votes in each house
-sustaining or overriding presidential vetoes
Congressional relationships with presidents: Please read Chapter 10
-the balance of power has evolved dramatically in favor of the president, especially since 1933
The (arguably) 10 most successful presidential legislative leaders:
-George Washington (1789-97) -Woodrow Wilson (1913-21)
-Thomas Jefferson (1801-09) -Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45)
-Andrew Jackson (1829-37) -Lyndon Johnson (1963-69)
-Abraham Lincoln (1861-65) -Ronald Reagan (1981-89)
-Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) -Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
-most important common factors contributing to presidential success on Capitol Hill
-election mandate (FDR, LBJ, Reagan) -presidential coattails -party control of Congress
-prioritizing legislation -submitting most important bills in administration’s first year
-good working relationship with congressional leaders and chairmen of both parties
-having a crack legislative liaison team -personal lobbying by the president (LBJ)
-willingness to compromise (Clinton) -a president willing to “horse trade” (LBJ, Reagan)
-presidential use of “carrot and stick” with congressmen (LBJ, Reagan)
-working well with friendly interest groups -public’s support for bills and/or president
-presidents most effectively using “the bully pulpit”
-Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson’s public speaking and press interviews
-Franklin Roosevelt’s radio “fireside chats,” frequent press interviews, and speeches
-Ronald Reagan’s TV addresses and successful stage management of public events
Lessons learned from less successful modern presidential legislative leaders:
-John Kennedy (1961-63): -fixation on foreign policy -lack of presidential lobbying
-lack of public support for much of his legislative agenda -brevity of tenure?
-Jimmy Carter (1977-81): -too many bills sent to Congress -failure to prioritize bills
-lack of presidential lobbying -refusal to compromise -failure to persuade public
-inept legislative liaison team -veto of popular congressional pork barrel legislation
-George Bush I (1989-93): -opposition party control of Congress -failure to seize initiative
-fixation on foreign policy -lack of presidential lobbying -failure to persuade public
-refusal to punish uncooperative congressmen of his own party
-Barack Obama (2009-17): -with major exception of 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare):
-lack of presidential lobbying -failure to persuade public -disdain for Congress?
-opposition party control of House since 2011 as well as Senate since 2015
Congress and executive branch departments, agencies, bureaus, etc.: Please read Chapter 11
-congressional oversight of executive branch -Congress creates executive branch units
-congressional authorship of agency charters and laws governing executive branch units
-Congress funds executive branch units -are bureaucrats more loyal to Congress or W.H.?
-sub/committees oversee executive branch actions and investigate possible corruption
-Truman Committee on WWII procurement -1950-51 Kefauver Committee on the Mafia
-1950s’ McCarthy anti-communist investigations -1954 Army-McCarthy TV hearings
-1957-60 McClellan Committee investigation of labor union racketeering
-1960s’ Fulbright-led Sen. Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Vietnam War
-1973’s Senate Watergate Committee hearings chaired by Sam Ervin