Department of Politics

364. Congress & the Presidency: the Era of George W. Bush March 2008 Dr. Craig W. Allin, Instructor Tonnie Flannery, Consulting Librarian Nicole Jackson, Writing Consultant Jessica Johanningmeier, Quantitative Consultant

FEBRUARY 28, 2008

The following Supplements to this Course Description can be found on the Web: Calendar & Assignments Legal Resources of Russell Cole Library Research Strategies Rules & Regulations Internet Research Links Intellectual Integrity Grades Documentation Good Advice

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Synopsis: This is a course about Congress and the presidency, the central policymaking institutions of the American Republic. These two institutions are engaged in a permanent struggle for control of American public policy and the bureaucrats who carry it out. The struggle may be moderated when Congress and the presidency are controlled by the same party, but the constitutional division of power assures us that the executive and legislative branches will always be rivals for power. Congressional supremacy is a written into the Constitution, but modern technology and the nation-state system may demand presidential supremacy. It's not always clear who's on top. In recent decades some scholars have worried about an "imperial" presidency; others have worried about an "imperiled" presidency. The relative powers of Congress and the presidency have waxed and waned with events and circumstances, sometimes on an almost daily basis. President Bill Clinton was impeached by a Republican Congress. His successor, George W. Bush, has dominated the Congress and worked assiduously to enhance presidential powers. A month ago there was a very real possibility that these enhanced presidential powers might be inherited by President Clinton's wife Hillary. Today they seem more likely to be inherited by a formerly little known African-American senator from Illinois. Truth is stranger than fiction. These are no ordinary times. For good or ill, the Presidency of George W. Bush will do down in history as unusually important. I have selected reading materials and designed assignments for this course in order to focus our attention on Congress and the first president of the 21st century.

Approach to Learning: I have planned this course as a journey of collective discovery. Although I have taught this class many times before, I don't plan to lecture. All the assigned readings are new to me as well as to you. We will experience them together and engage each other in conversation. I will expect you to raise questions and take considerable responsibility for the discussion. You will have added responsibility on days when you are sharing additional scholarship with the class.

Feedback: Whether or not you are asked to complete a standardized course evaluation, I am interested in your comments and suggestions for improvement of the course, the readings, the assignments and this course description. Feel free to send comments as you think of them. E-mail: callin@cornellcollege.edu. There are even free, web-based services that will let you send your comments anonymously.

Instructor: Craig W. Allin, Room 307, South Hall. Telephone: Office, (895-) 4278; Home, 895-8103. E-mail: callin@cornellcollege.edu. Appointments may be scheduled with departmental administrator Cheryl Dake (895-) 4283, cdake@cornellcollege.edu.

"Normal conditions should be restored in two or three months." -- Herbert Hoover (May 1930) "In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." -- George W. Bush (May 1, 2003)

Office Hours: If I'm not in class with you, you can probably find me in my office. Feel free to make an appointment or just show up. To help you find me, schedule is available for your electronic inspection over the campus network if you are using Microsoft Outlook.

1. On the File menu, point to Open, and then click Other User's Folder.

2. In the Open Other User's Folder box, click Name and select Craig Allin from the list.

3. In the Folder box, select Calendar from the pull-down menu.

E-Mail: In order to provide quick and legible feedback on your work, please deliver your papers, paper-preparatory submissions, and take-home quizzes (if any) by means of e-mail attachments. Please save your papers and other submissions in Word (*.doc) or Rich Text (*.rtf) format. Please use your name for the file name. E.g., craig-allin.doc. It doesn't help me find what I need if I have 25 files all named "paper." Attach your file to an e-mail addressed to callin@cornellcollege.edu. If you have not sent e-mail attachments before, check here for instructions.

Class Meetings: Generally 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in Room 18, South Hall. For details and irregularities check Course Calendar & Assignments.

Books: The following are available at the bookstore. Things change rapidly in the world of Congress and the Presidency. Please do not try to muddle through with older editions of the books.

• James A. Thurber. 2006. Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, Third Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

• Barbara Sinclair. 2007. Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the U.S. Congress, Third Edition. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

As is the custom in many graduate seminars, you have reading and reporting responsibilities that go beyond the assigned texts. The Independent Reading Schedule lists reading assignments for each day of the class beginning on Day #2 and concluding on Day #15. When the responsibility has been assigned to you, you are obligated to locate, read, analyze, and share additional material relevant to the day's reading assignment. Your independent reading assignment for any given day is one chapter in a scholarly book or one article in a scholarly journal. Each selection must be within the scope of the assigned reading to which it is linked.

Your grade for this portion of the course will depend upon both what you contribute to the seminar discussion and what you submit in writing.

For the class discussion your job is:

1. to provide the basic bibliographical information on your source,

2. to summarize the hypothesis, research methods, and conclusions or other major points,

3. to explain how your selection supports, contradicts or illuminates themes from the corresponding assigned reading, and

4. to share the lessons you learned from the selection, and

5. to answer questions from the other participants in the seminar.

Your written assignment is a formal abstract of the selection you read. Your abstract should contain the complete bibliographical entry in an approved format followed by an accurate synopsis of the selection in proper English. It should be typed, single-spaced, and limited to 600 words. The abstract should be distributed to all members of the class by e-mail attachment at least three hours prior to the beginning of the class for which it was assigned. Note: Your abstract synopsizes only the contents of your selection. It does not include the analyses (parts 3 through 5 above) that are part of your oral report. For further information consult How to Write an Abstract. For an example click here.

It is my hope that this form of assignment will have at least three benefits:

1. the opportunity to learn from fellow students,

2. the opportunity to evaluate and select from among a wide range of appropriate reading, and

3. the opportunity to enhance your research, analytical and presentation skills.

Here are some hints to get you started:

1. Read the linked chapter carefully before you select an independent reading. You want to select an independent reading that will effectively supplement or complement the chapter to which it is linked.

2. Make use of the citations in the chapter to which your independent reading report is linked.

3. Make use of Cole On-Line and the various on-line indexes available through Cole Library.

4. Search out recently edited volumes that print or reprint significant articles in areas of interest to our course.

5. Search out relevant texts which contain notes and/or bibliographies which can help you find relevant reading.

6. Select only articles and books written during the presidency of George W. Bush unless the content of the linked chapter is clearly historical.

7. Consult A Guide to Accessing and Evaluating Scholarly Resources to make sure you know scholarship when you see it.

Learning Objectives:

1. To enhance knowledge of the complex interactions of Congress, the President, and other players as they engage over a specific question of public policy.

2. To improve knowledge of research methods and materials including scholarly articles and books, government documents, Internet resources, and specialized indexes.

3. To emphasize the role of grammar, punctuation, spelling, mechanics, usage, and documentation in effective expository prose.

4. To master the use of a recognized style sheet.

5. To use critical comment effectively as a means of improving your writing.

6. To communicate your expertise orally.

7. To use presentation software effectively.

ASSIGNMENT: Surprise! Your assignment is NOT a policy paper. I have described the interaction of Congress and the Presidency as a struggle for supremacy over American public policy. You are to prepare a case study of that struggle during the presidency of George W. Bush and to present it in a paper and in an oral report to the class. As you prepare your case you should attempt to answer the following questions:

1. What happened in this case?

2. Why did it happen in this case?

3. What are the broader lessons, conclusions, generalizations, or hypotheses that arise from this case?

Samples of case studies done for this class on the Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Panama Canal Treaty, the 1996 Clinton-Gingrich Budget Showdown, the Partial Birth Abortion Debate, the Social Security Act of 1935, and American Withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty are available for your examination. Note: the papers linked above were selected as examples of good case studies done by a previous students in this class. Previous classes took a more historical approach to the relationship between Congress and the presidency, so historical case studies were perfectly appropriate. Because our class is emphasizing the remarkable presidency of George W. Bush, case studies for this class are limited to the period from 2001 through 2008.

The assignment has six distinct procedural phases.

Phase II -- RESEARCH: Give particular attention to the Congressional and Executive Branch documents that can provide data and insights relevant to writing your case history. A good primer for this kind of research is A Guide to Legislative History, Presidential and Executive Agency Documents,
and Advocacy Research. Explore for relevant scholarly articles and books. Contrary to popular belief, not everything is digital. Remember the central questions are: (1) What happened in this case? (2) Why did it happen in this case? (3) What are the broader lessons, conclusions, generalizations, or hypotheses that arise from this case? Target your research to answer these questions.

Phase III -- OUTLINE or ABSTRACT: No later than the 11th day of the course you must submit an outline or abstract of your paper/presentation. Your outline or abstract should include the answers in brief to the key questions: (1) What happened in this case? (2) Why did it happen in this case? (3) What are the broader lessons, conclusions, generalizations, or hypotheses that arise from this case?

Phase IV -- PAPER: Your case history, analysis, and conclusions will be presented in a formal paper with appropriate manuscript format, proper citations, etc. It is quality, not quantity that counts, but case studies by definition require quite a lot of description. I would guess that many of you might end up in the range of 2500 to 5000 words exclusive of notes, illustrations, appendices, etc. Your work product in this form is worth 20% of the final course grade.

Phase V -- SEMINAR PRESENTATION: Your case history, analysis, and conclusions will also be shared with the class in the form of a seminar report. You will have 15 minutes to make your presentation. You will not have sufficient time to read your paper, nor would it be appropriate to do so. You will want to rework your material, including text and illustrations (if any), for the most effective possible oral presentation. Generally a good oral report will require you to simplify the presentation and to give even greater attention to organization and to communicating that organization to the listener. Effective oral presentation depends on your knowing your material well. Presentation from notes is preferred to reading from a text, but reading from a text is better than rambling and confusion. Visual aids often support, clarify, or add interest to oral presentations. We have the luxury of a classroom equipped for digital projection, so use it to good advantage. Clarity of organization is even more important in oral presentation than in prose. A listener can't go back and rehear what you just said the way a reader can go back and reread what you wrote. It's simple-minded and formulaic, but it's often wise to preview your presentation ("tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em") at the beginning and to review your presentation ("tell 'em what you told 'em") at the end. Oral presentations don't have formal notes or bibliographies, but it is still wise to communicate sources of specialized information to the listener. E.g., "A 1997 study by University of Michigan law professor Melissa James concluded that. . . ." Unintrusive source notes on your PowerPoint slides help you to create a professional impression. Your instructor and selected classmates will provide you with critiques of your oral presentation, which is worth 20% of the final course grade.

Phase VI -- REWRITE: I will provide you with a written critique of your paper. You will utilize this feedback to rework and improve your paper. The rewrite is required and accounts for an additional 10% of your course grade. Making the obvious changes will preserve your original grade. Significant improvements in substance or presentation will increase your original grade.

Please consult "Common Sense for College Students: Papers," for information and suggestions pertinent to writing any paper, as well as requirements that apply to all papers written in courses I teach.