Introduction to Latin American Politics PS 151

PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS

PS 280 Comparative Legislatures

T/TH 2:50-4:05 Perkins 307

Prof. Scott Morgenstern

660-4350

336 Perkins (also at Latin American Studies, 2114 Campus Dr)

Office Hours MW 9-11

The goal of this class is to move us towards an understanding of the central question of comparative legislative politics: How can a legislature support democratic development? In answering this question we will necessarily discuss how legislatures can be organized to promote development and the factors that support or impede that goal. The course is organized as a graduate seminar, and thus each session will be built around a critical analysis of academic literature. In our discussion we will work to keep a critical eye on the motivation behind the studies, only then looking at the specific questions and methodologies the different authors use. We will frequently use literature on the U.S. Congress to frame our discussions, simply because that literature is so voluminous and influential. In general, however, we will consider the United States as simply one comparative case.

Course Requirements:

The course will be based on extensive discussion and all students will lead several of the class discussions. The student leader for each class will prepare a synthetic essay, usually around 4 to 5 pages, that will frame the discussion. That essay is due by 9:00 AM the morning of the seminar, posted on the blackboard site. All other students should read these essays and post at least three discussion questions to our blackboard site previous to each session. The questions can focus on methodology, a synthesis among the articles, or application of the theory to other cases. One of the students who is not leading the day’s discussion will be responsible for preparing an analytical outline of class readings, based on the format below. These too are due by 9:00 of the day of the class. There is no midterm or final exam, and only a relatively short final paper (around 10 pages). The final paper should be a more extensive review of the literature for one of the topics we discussed in class.

The analytical outline should address the following questions (noting each point).

A) The larger question to which the work is tied (i.e. the justification of the work).

B) The more specific research question that the author(s) address

Is this smaller question a reasonable proxy for the larger question? Is it interesting? Useful?

C) The Hypothesis (and alternative)

Is the hypothesis falsifiable?

D) A review of the data and methodology.

E) Findings. Are they surprising? Counterintuitive? Why are they important?

F) Conclusions and applicability to comparative work. Is the work theoretically interesting for application to other countries?

Books and other Reading:

Please order from Amazon:

Mayhew, David. 1974. Congress: the Electoral Connection. Ch. 1

Cox and McCubbins 1993. Legislative Leviathan

Kiewiet and McCubbins The Logic of Delegation

Other readings will be available on e-reserves, e-journals, the articles section of our Blackboard site, or in the polisci grad lounge.

Introduction

Why study legislatures?

The US Congress in Comparative Perspective

Executive Legislative Relations: Comparative Cases

Constituency Service

Party Voting: Comparative Theory and Cases

Evolution of Institutions: Comparative

Note to create reading days before the book days, cut 1 class of Hinich and Munger and combined the class on voting behavior theory and cases, comparative.