17.202
American Political Institutions
Analyzes the institutions of the American political system, with primary emphasis on the national level. Examines American federalism, political parties, national political institutions, and the policymaking process. Focuses on core works in contemporary American politics and public policy. Critiques both research methodologies and the explicit and implicit theoretical assumptions of such work.
Spring 2010 · Graduate Seminar in American Politics II
Topics
- Introduction
- Congress: Representation and institutionalization
- Congress: Party, polarization, and ideology
- President I
- President II
- Courts I: The Supreme Court as an institution
- Courts II: Judicial behavior
- Bureaucracy
- Political parties
- Interest groups
Readings
- Cox, Gary W., and Mathew D. McCubbins. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521694094.
- Krehbiel, Keith. Pivotal Politics . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998, chapters 1-6, 8. ISBN: 9780226452715.
- Mayhew, David R. Congress: The Electoral Connection . 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780300105872.
- Poole, Keith T., and Howard Rosenthal. Ideology and Congress. 2nd revised ed. Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007. ISBN: 9781412806084.
- Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan . New York, NY: Free Press, 1991, chapters 1-8. ISBN: 9780029227961.
- Skowronek, Stephen. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997, pp. 3-58 and 287-446, skim the rest of part II. ISBN: 9780674689374.
- Kernell, Sam. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership . 4th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2007, chapter 1-6. ISBN: 9781568028996.
- Cameron, Charles M. Veto Bargaining and the Politics of Negative Power . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press , 2000, chapters 1, 3, 5, and 6. ISBN: 9780521625500.
- Rosenberg, Gerald. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Chicago. IL: University of Chicago Press, 2008, chapter 1, part I. ISBN: 9780226726717.
- Segal, Jeffrey, and Harold J. Spaeth. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002, excerpts TBA. ISBN: 9780521783514.
- Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It . New York, NY: Basic Books, 1991, chapters 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9. ISBN: 9780465007851.
- Aldrich, John. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995, chapters 1-6. ISBN: 9780226012728.
- Olson, Mancur. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971, chapters 1, 2, 5, and 6. ISBN: 9780674537514.
- Schattschneider, Elmer E. The Semi-Sovereign People . Florence, KY: Wadsworth Publishing, 1975, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780030133664.
- SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction · READINGS: No readings
- Dahl, Robert A. “Decision Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as a National Policy Maker.” Journal of Public Law 6 (1958): 279-95.
- Niskanen, William. Bureaucracy and Representative Democracy . Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton, 1971, chapters 1, 7, 17 and 21.
- Carpenter, Daniel. “The Evolution of National Bureaucracy in the United States.” In Institutions of American Democracy: The Executive Branch . Edited by Joel D. Aberbach and Mark A. Peterson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780195309157.
- ———. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862-1928 . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001, introduction, chapter 1, conclusion. ISBN: 9780691070100.
- Key, V. O. Southern Politics in State and Nation . Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1984, chapter 3. ISBN: 9780870494352.
- Hofstadter, Richard. The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780-1840 . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1970, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780520017542.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2010
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.