POS 4424  The Legislative Process

Fall 2007

Monday, Wednesday and Friday: Period 2 (8.30 a.m. to 9.20 a.m.)  NRN 331

Instructor:   Stephen C. Boyle Ph.D.

Office:  [   ] Anderson Hall

Email:  scboyle@ufl.edu

Office Hours:  Monday Wednesday and Friday 9.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m.

Also by appointment.

Class Web Site:  http://plaza.ufl.edu/scboyle

Introduction

The title of course, “The Legislative Process”, does not sound like something likely to excite or enthrall us; in fact, I’ll admit that it sounds rather dull.  Worthy of our study certainly, but ultimately something of a yawn fest.  My objective in teaching this course is, however, to let you into a little secret.  Congress is exciting! 

Five hundred and thirty five men and women are sent to Washington to represent their peers and make the laws that govern the land.  The American system of a government separates power among three branches, but the making of new laws is reserved exclusively to Congress.  It alone has the power to raise taxes, establish and maintain the military, print the currency, and to make treaties with foreign nations.  Increasingly, through the power of the federal purse, Congress dictates the policies and practices of the governments of individual states; why are you not permitted to drink alcohol until you are aged 21?  Because Congress makes it a precondition of federal highway aid. 

The Founders made this job as difficult as they could think of;  bicameralism, differing terms of office, differing constituencies, and weighting in favor of smaller states make consensus difficult to achieve.  Congress itself has compounded these difficulties with institutional and procedural obstacles all of their own making.  The wonder is that any laws are passed at all!  And yet they are.  Through bargaining and threatening and cajoling and fighting and horse trading day in and day out, our law makers negotiate an obstacle course laid down over two centuries ago and steadily added to ever since.  And before they can do any of that, they have to get themselves elected and keep themselves in office and raise the millions of dollars that are necessary to beat off the unending line of pretenders who want to take their place.  This is not dull; this is pure drama.  And Dick Wolf has nothing like it!

Course Requirements

Attendance & Participation: Attendance at all of the weekly meetings is a required part of the course and regular participation is crucial.  We will meet approximately 40 times over the course of the semester; if you miss more than five classes your attendance and participation grade will begin to be affected; you can expect to lose 1 point for every absence in excess of five. Your attendance grade will be taken into account when considering your overall grade at the end of the semester.  20% of your overall grade will be determined by your attendance and participation in class. 

Reaction Papers:  Scholars will be expected to submit six reaction papers over the course of the semester.  A reaction paper should address the topics covered during one (and only one) week of the Semester; scholars are free to decide which topics they wish to address in a reaction paper and, therefore, when they wish to submit a reaction paper.  Each reaction paper will be worth 5 points towards your overall grade.  All six will, therefore, amount to 30% of your final grade.  Reaction papers should follow the following outline:

Ø      Reaction papers should be of strictly not less than three and not more than five pages in length, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font with 1 inch margins all around;

Ø      A brief summary of the week’s readings should be given and questions or comments on the readings should be raised.  A summary alone will only receive a grade of B or lower for the reaction paper.  To obtain a grade of B+ for the reaction paper, scholars should succinctly summarize the issues covered during the week when they chose to prepare a reaction paper and they should raise questions and comments about the materials considered that week.  To obtain a grade of A, scholars should relate the materials that they have considered to a contemporary issue in American politics; 

Ø      Reaction papers should be submitted by the end of the week following the week when the materials are considered; i.e. if you chose to prepare a reaction paper on the materials considered during week 6, you should submit your paper in class by the end of week 7.  Time extensions will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances – if you miss a deadline you will simply have to chose a later week.  The instructor’s determination of what amounts to exceptional circumstances is final and extensions will never exceed 7 days;

Ø      Reaction papers relating to the first or last weeks of the semester may not be submitted.  Only one reaction paper may be submitted for an individual week – you cannot react to the same material twice.

Ø      It is up to you to keep track of how many reaction papers you have submitted and how many are still required.  If you discover that there are only three weeks of the semester left and you still have to submit four reaction papers, I am afraid that you are out of luck.

Research and Written Assignment and Final Exam:  You will have the option of preparing a research paper of 20 or so pages or taking a final examination at the end of term.  The choice is entirely yours and you may decide at any time which you prefer.  Details of each option follow:

Research Assignment:  Early during the term a lottery will be held in class in which scholars will be allocated a state for analysis.  You will pick a piece of paper from a hat which will be passed around the classroom and that piece of paper will have printed on it the name of one of the fifty states of the Union.  Your research project will then be to learn all that you can about your chosen state’s representation in Congress; its Senators and House members, the party split, their different electoral platforms, the political priorities of the state and how they are addressed by the representatives.  As part of this project I will expect you to contact one or more of the state’s representatives by snail mail or email and see if you can persuade them to answer some relevant questions that arise from your research and from the issues that we cover in class.  We will discuss this project in more detail in class.  Please note however that you must get your questions to the Members of Congress approved by me in advance.  Failure to do so will result in you being disqualified from this part of the course, i.e. you will have to take the final exam.

You will be required to report the progress of your research and preparation of your paper in a two page summary which will be due in class on Friday, October 12^th. 

The final paper should be around 10 double spaced pages in length using a 12 point font.  This project will account for 30% of your grade. Each paper should be based on a range of research sources.  We will discuss research strategies in class and the instructor will assist you in finding appropriate sources of information. 

The research paper will be due in class on Friday, November 9^th.  In fairness to those scholars who present their work on time, late papers will be penalized half a letter grade per day; exceptions will be made only for documented medical or other similar reasons.

Final Exam:  As an alternative to the research project scholars may opt to take the final exam.  The exam will be hard.  It will be in short essay format and will be cumulative; i.e. it will cover all of the materials that we consider in class.  There will, however, be a comprehensive study guide and a review session to help you. 

Class Project and Presentation:  Some scholars are naturally comfortable with the idea of class discussion while others are, understandably, more reticent about expressing their views, ideas, and questions in front of their fellow scholars.  Accordingly, this element of the course will allow the ebullient and the reticent to work together in groups of around 5 or 6 to lead a class discussion on a particular topic of the course.  There is no cause to be alarmed about this aspect of the course – it is intended as a means to allow scholars to share their ideas and questions in an informal and collegiate atmosphere.   The presentation will not be graded – participation will be sufficient to secure the full 5 points.  We will discuss this aspect of the syllabus in more detail once the class is underway. 

Quizzes/Instructor’s Discretion:  There will be a number of quizzes during the semester based upon some of the most important class readings.  You will receive adequate advance notice of all quizzes - there will be no surprises!  It is in the nature of the topics that we will be considering that political events are likely to occur during the course of the semester that have a direct bearing upon the subject matter of the course.  Therefore, in order that we may keep abreast of such developments, points may be awarded for specific tasks or projects which are set during the course of the semester at the instructor’s discretion. 

Required Texts: There are four required texts and a course packet.  I have costed the texts on Amazon and they total less than $50 so I would suggest this as the best way of obtaining them.  The course packet should not cost more than $60 or so.  The required texts are as follows:

• Congress Reconsidered Eighth Edition edited by Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer.
• The Civil Rights Act 1964: The Passage of the Law that Ended Racial Segregation edited by Robert D. Loevy.
• The Congressional Experience: Transforming American Politics Third Edition by David E. Price.
• Tell Newt To Shut Up by David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf
• The course packet will be available shortly after the beginning of the semester – details will be provided in class.

Summary Of Components Of The Final Grades For The Course

Attendance & Participation:             20%

Reaction Papers:                               30%

Written Project/Final Exam:            30%

Class Presentation:                           10%

Quizzes/Instructors Discretion:      10%

TOTAL                                              100%

Academic Honesty:  Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.  Such dishonesty will be obvious to the instructor in a class of this size and will, of course, result in automatic failure of the course.  You should refer to, and be familiar with the University of Florida policies in relation to plagiarism which can be reviewed here: http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/instruct2/studentplagiarismpage.html

Syllabus Updates:  This syllabus will be updated from time to time throughout the semester.  The current version of the syllabus will always be available on line at the class web site.  Always refer to the on line syllabus for class requirements and critical dates. 

Critical Dates:

Class Policies

Cell Phones etc.:  As a courtesy to the instructor and to your fellow scholars, all cell phones, pagers, mp3 players, blackberries and similar devices should be switched off during class.  NOTE: Vibrate is not an option. 

Late Comers/Early Leavers:  The nature of the classroom that has been assigned to us is such that scholars who arrive late, or who attempt to leave before class is concluded, will be seriously disruptive to the class as a whole.  Therefore, again as a courtesy to the instructor and your fellow scholars, you should aim to arrive on time and you should not leave class before the end.  Any scholar who does leave during class time will be marked as absent for the class and will be thoroughly ridiculed as he/she makes their way to the exit. 

Classroom Dining:  Coffee and muffins are an essential aid when attending classes that are inconveniently scheduled to begin before lunch time.  Hot food, or anything emitting an unpleasant aroma should not, however, be brought to class under any circumstances.  The instructor’s judgment of what constitutes an unpleasant aroma is final.  We are here to study democracy, not to practice it.

Courtesy:  The watchword for class behavior is courtesy.  All of the foregoing requirements amount to nothing more than courteous behaviour towards the instructor and your fellow scholars; you should expect to receive the same courteous treatment in return. 

The Class Schedule

ONLINE RESOURCES

§                  • U.S. House of Representatives                     http://www.house.gov  

§                  – Clerk of the House                                       http://clerk.house.gov

§                  • U.S. Senate                                                     http://www.senate.gov

§                  • Library of Congress                                      http://www.loc.gov

§                  – THOMAS                                                       http://www.thomas.loc.gov

§                  – Legislative Information                                http://www.loc.gov/home/legbranch/legbranch.html

§                  • Federal Election Commission                      http://www.fec.gov

§                  • The Washington Post                                   http://www.washingtonpost.com

§                  – WP Congress section                                   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/congress.asp

§                  • The New York Times                                     http://www.nytimes.com

§                  • Roll Call                                                         http://www.rollcall.com

§                  • The Hill                                                          http://www.thehill.com

§                  • National Journal                                          http://www.nationaljournal.com

§                  • C-SPAN                                                          http://www.cspan.org

§                  • CQ Weekly (and other CQ resources)         http://library.cqpress.com/index.php

§                  • Lexis-Nexis Congressional                          http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp 

§                  • Congress.org                                                  http://www.congress.org

* via UF libraries web site