Syllabus
Instructor: Thomas Patterson
In this course, we’ll examine the American political system specifically U.S. institutions, including Congress and the presidency, and U.S. political organizations. The emphasis will be on the “big picture.” What are the driving forces and persistent tendencies of American politics? Who governs America--how, when and why?
The lectures will highlight main features of American politics while asking you to think critically about key issues. Why are American elections awash in money? Why has the power to start wars shifted from Congress to the president? Why does the United States have more people in poverty and yet spend less on social welfare than other major democracies? What accounts for the party polarization that characterizes today’s politics? Why is income inequality on the rise in America? Why has global trade become a controversial foreign policy issue? In the process of addressing such questions, you will engage in analytical reasoning—an important life skill that is strengthened through repeated use. Case studies will be used to prompt you to think critically about what you have learned.
It is strongly recommended that you read an introductory American government text as a supplement to the lectures. Such a text will improve your knowledge of the subject and fill in details that the lectures—given the limits of time—do not address. One such text is my own (Thomas Patterson, We the People, 12th edition). Pages from the text are listed in the readings for each session. You are welcome to use a different introductory text if you prefer. In that case, you should identify the pages related to each session’s topic.
Three other U.S. Government courses are also available. You are invited to enroll in these courses as well:
HKS101A_1 Constitutional Foundations of American Government
HKS101A_3 Citizen Politics in America: Public Opinion, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media
HKS101A_4 U.S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies
Welcome to the course! I look forward to being with you.
Tom
Thomas E. Patterson
Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Grading
In order to earn a certificate, you must complete at least 70% of the course requirements, which includes watching the lecture videos, doing the readings, answering the quizzes, participating in the discussion, and completing the writing assignments, each of which is worth 20% towards your final grade. Completion of lectures, readings, and discussion participation is self-reported in the ’Self-Assessment’ component at the end of each unit. You can track your progress throughout the course in the Progress tab.
The breakdown is as follows:
Reading 20%
Viewing Lecture 20%
Quizzes 20%
Discussion 20%
Writing Assignments 20%
You can complete the course requirements at anytime until the end of the course, but for your own benefit, we encourage you to work through the material and assignments in a timely manner.
Writing Assignment - Essay
There will be a single writing assignment in the course. You will be given a prompt and asked to write no more than 600 words in response. You will be given a rubric which you will use to grade your peers using the edX peer grading tool.
The essay is due on of before the course closes.
U.S. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS: CONGRESS, PRESIDENCY, COURTS, AND BUREAUCRACY
Course Schedule
Congress & Constituency
The Congress of the United States was established as the “first branch” of government—the institution that would represent the people. “The people” continue to have influence on Congress. Nothing looms larger in the political thinking of most members of Congress than does their constituency---the voters in the state or district they represent. The nature of the U.S. electoral system—its single-member plurality district system—compels them to pay attention to their constituents in order to win reelection.
In this session, we will examine how their constituency affects the behavior of members of Congress, including its influence on the type of bills that members are most likely to support. The 2014 farm bill will be used to highlight constituency influence.
Congress & Party
With its two chambers, three dozen committees, and individually empowered members, Congress is a fragmented institution. Nevertheless, there is a unifying force in Congress—its political parties. Congress is organized along party lines—for instance, the majority party in each chamber chooses the top leaders and holds a majority of seats on each standing committee. In the past few decades, as a result of a widening ideological gap between Republican and Democratic lawmakers, partisanship has increasingly defined the actions of Congress.
This session will describe the role of parties in Congress and explain the developments that have contributed to party polarization within Congress. We’ll examine the 2013 government shutdown as a case study in party conflict. The session will also explain why Congress’s fragmented structure makes it difficult for Congress to take the lead on major national issues while making it perfectly suited to taking on scores of smaller issues at once.
Presidents & Domestic Policy
Presidents operate within a system of divided power. Although they routinely propose legislative initiatives, Congress has the lawmaking power. As a result, presidents’ ability to get their policy initiatives enacted into law depends largely on Congress’s willingness to respond. An exception is executive orders, which are issued by the president through their constitutional authority as chief executive.
This session will examine the factors that affect presidential success in the area of domestic policy. Several factors will be mentioned, but the focus will be the partisan makeup of Congress—whether a majority of its members are from the president’s party. The 1964 food stamp bill and the 1996 welfare bill will be used to illustrate the relationship between presidential success and Congress’s partisan makeup.
Presidents & Foreign Policy
Writing in the 1960s, political scientist Aaron Wildavsky claimed that the United States has only one president but has two presidencies—one when it comes to domestic policy and another when it comes to foreign policy. Wildavsky’s thesis is now regarded as an oversimplification, but presidents are less constrained in the foreign policy realm than in the domestic policy realm. For example, although the Constitution assigns Congress the power to declare war, the decision to send US troops into hostile action in practice rests with the president.
In this session, we’ll examine the president’s comparative advantages—for example, control over information—in the making of foreign policy. We’ll look particularly at the president’s war power and at executive agreements—treaty-like arrangements authorized solely by the president. President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 will serve as a case study.
Federal Bureaucracy
The federal bureaucracy has no constitutional authority of its own. Staffed by unelected officials, its authority derives from constitutional powers granted to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Yet, the federal bureaucracy exercises a power of its own, and federal agencies typically have an “agency point of view”—they seek to promote and protect their programs.
In this session, we’ll examine the federal bureaucracy—its structure, staffing, and operation. We’ll also explore the challenge of holding the bureaucracy accountable for its actions. The Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet program will serve as a case study of bureaucratic politics.
Judiciary & Supreme Court
Article III of the Constitution establishes the federal judiciary and defines its authority. Article III reads in part: “The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”
At the top of the federal judiciary is the Supreme Court, which has been described as “the world’s most powerful court,” a situation that derives from its status as an independent and co-equal branch of the federal government and from the fact that America’s system of divided powers and individual rights is a frequent source of constitutional disputes.
This session will examine judicial power and the influence of politics on Supreme Court decisions. We will also consider the normative question of how much power an unelected judiciary should have in a democratic system. The primary case study in this session will be the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which struck down an act of Congress prohibiting independent campaign expenditures by corporations and labor unions.