Schedule of Events and Reading Assignments
Week 1: Introduction--
Theory and Constitutional Foundations:
Madison, et. al., "The Federalist Papers"
Henry J. Merry, "The Constitutional System: The Group Character of the
Elected Institutions" Praeger, 1986.
Week 2: Congress
and the Presidency-- A Strained Relationship:
Charles O. Jones, "Separate but Equal Branches: Congress and the Presidency"
Chatham House, 1995.
Louis Fisher, "The Politics of Shared Power: Congress and the Executive,
3rd Ed,
CQ Press, 1993.
Week 3: The Presidency:
A Formal Assessment:
Theodore Lowi, "The Personal Presidency" Cornell, 1985.
Week 4: The Congress:
A Formal Assessment:
Steven S. Smith, The American Congress (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993).
Leroy Rieselbach, "Congressional Politics,"
Week 5: The Bureaucracy:
A Formal Assessment:
Ken Meier, "Politics and the Bureaucracy: Policymaking in the Fourth Branch
of Government" 3rd Ed, Brook-Cole, 1993
Week 6: First Examination;
Presidential
Research Paper Proposals Due.
Week 7: The Clash
of Wills I-- The Constitutional Setting:
James A. Thurber, ed. Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations
(Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1996).
Week 8: The Clash
of Wills II-- The Executive Branch:
John Hart, "The Presidential Branch" (1996)
Week 9: The Clash
of Wills III-- The Bureaucracy:
Randal Ripley and Grace Franklin, "Congress the Bureaucracy and Public
Policy," 5th edition, Brook-Cole, 1991.
Week 10: Presidential
or Congressional Ascendancy?-- The President as Legislator:
Jon R. Bond and Richard Fleischer, "The President in the Legislative
Arena" Chicago Press, 1990.
George C. Edwards, "At the Margins: Presidential Leadership of Congress,"
Yale, 1989.
President Papers Due
Week 11: Presidential
or Congressional Ascendancy?--Congress as Administrator:
Lawrence C. Dodd, "Congress and the Administrative State"
Joel Aberbach, "Keeping a Watchful Eye: The Politics of Congressional Oversight"
Brookings, 1990.
Committee Paper Proposals Due
Week 12: Presidential
or Congressional Ascendancy?--The Public, Media, and the Ability to use
Persuasion to Broker Power:
Sam Kernell, "Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership,"
CQ Press, 1997.
Week 13: Second Exam
Week 14: The Construction
of Public Policy: Budget Battles
Lance LeLoup and Steven Shull "Congress and the Presidency: The Policy
Connection" Wadsworth, 1993.
Daniel J. Palazzolo "Done Deal?: The Politics of the 1997 Budget Agreement"
Chatham House, 1999.
Week 15: Conclusion
and Review.
Louis Fisher, "Constructional Conflicts Between Congress and the President,
3rd Ed., Kansas Press, 1991
Robert J. Spitzer, "President and Congress: Executive Hegemony at the Crossroads
of American Government"
Committee Papers Due
Final Exam