Congressional Politics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar is designed to introduce students to cutting edge debates in the study of the U.S. Congress and to prepare students to carry out research that engages these debates and furthers our understanding of congressional politics. This course assumes a basic understanding of congressional behavior and processes. Each week we will examine an important area of research such as representation, elections, political parties, and presidential-congressional relations. The week’s readings will address important questions within each field such as “what explains the decline in the competitiveness of congressional elections?” Students will read both classic works in the field and important new research. During class discussion and in research critiques, students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the literature and will develop a research agenda that will advance our knowledge of the field. Students will create a final research project that takes on an important theoretical debate and develops a research design to address that question.