During the first part of the course, we will concentrate on the following topics:

• The process through which a bill becomes a law
• Congressional leadership
• Party structures within Congress
• The committee system
• Congressional staff and congressional offices.

During the second part of the semester, we will focus on:

•  20th Century Reforms in Congress:
• The Anti-Canon Revolt
• The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946
• The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970
• Other reforms of the 1970s
• The Republican Revolution and
   Congressional reforms of the 1990s
• The budgetary process
• Congressional oversight
• Interest groups and lobbying
• Campaign financing and campaign financing reform.

We will also be exploring various sources on Congress and the Connecticut State Legislature available on the Internet.
 

Term Papers

While the class readings will generally focus on the U.S. Congress, the term papers will generally focus on similar topics in regard to the Connecticut State Legislature. The particular subject area of each student's report will be chosen in consultation between the student and the professor.  A good part of the research for these term papers will involve field work at the State Capitol in Hartford. This typewritten term paper will be ten pages in length.  Some students will also be selected to make an oral presentation based on their chosen topic.
 

Evaluation

Along with the term paper and class presentations, each student's performance will be judged on the basis of a midterm and final examination and on class participation. It is expected that students will keep up with the required readings, whether or not a specific reading assignment is announced in class. Should class participation become particularly slack, unannounced quizzes may be given.
 
 

Office Hours

Dr. Triebwasser's office is located in Room 010 in the basement of DiLoreto Hall. His office hours are from 1:00 to 2:00 and from 4:00 to 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 3:00 to 4:00 pm on Wednesdays; and by appointment. If you cannot meet with Dr. Triebwasser during his scheduled office hours, do not hesitate to make an appointment with him. His phone number is 832-2970, and his e-mail address is triebwasser@ccsu.edu.

Required Reading

Class discussion will be based on the following required works as well as on Internet class notes:

Woods, Patricia D.  The New Dynamics of Congress: A Guide to the People and Process in Lawmaking.  Washington, DC: The Woods Institute, 1995.

Current American Government: Spring 2004 Guide.Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 2004.

Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I.  Editors.  Congress  Reconsidered.  Seventh Edition.  Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2001.

Dwyre, Diana and Farrar-Myers, Victoria A.  Legislative Labyrinth: Congress and Campaign Finance Reform.  Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2001.

Alexander, DeAlva Stanwood.  History and Procedure of the House of Representatives.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1916.

Alexander, Herbert E.  Financing Politics: Money, Elections, & Political Reform.  Fourth Edition. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1992.

Baker, Richard A. and Davidson, Roger H.  First Among Equals: Senate Leaders of the 20th Century. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1991.

Baker, Ross K.  House and Senate.  Scranton, PA: National Book Company (W. W. Norton & Company), 1995.

Bailey, Stephen K.  Congress Makes A Law.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1950.

Bauer, Raymond.  American Business and Public Policy: The Politics of Foreign Trade.  New York: Atherton Press, 1963.

Berman, Daniel M.  How A Bill Becomes a Law: Congress Enacts Civil Rights Legislation. New York: Macmillan, 1966.

Bernstein, Robert A.  Elections, Representation, and Congressional Voting Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1989.

Berry, Jeffrey M.  Lobbying for the People: The Political Behavior of Public Interest Groups. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Bibby, John F. and Davidson, Roger H.  On Capitol Hill: Studies in the Legislative Process.  Second Edition.  Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press, 1972.

Biersack, Robert.  After the Revolution:  PACs, Lobbies, and the Republican Congress.  Boston, MA:  Allyn and Bacon, 1999.

Birnbaum, Jeffrey H. and Murray, Alan S.  Showdown At Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists, and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform.  New York: Random House, 1987.

Bolling, Richard.  House Out of Order.  New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1965.

_______.  Power in the House.  New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1968.

Bowles, Nigel.  The White House and Capitol Hill.  Oxford University Press, 1987.

Brown, Richard E.  The GAO: Untapped Source of Congressional Power.  Knoxville, Tennessee: University Press, 1970.

Burnham, James.  Congress and the American Tradition.  Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1959.

Clapp, Charles L.  The Congressman.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1963.

Clark, Joseph S.  Congress, The Sapless Branch.  New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

_______.  The Senate Establishment.  New York: Hill and Wang, 1963.

Clausen, Aage R.  How Congressmen Decide: A Policy Focus.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973.

Cleveland, Frederic N.  Congress and Urban Problems: A Casebook on the Legislative Process. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1969.

Cohen, Richard E.  Washington At Work: Back Rooms and Clean Air.  New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.

Cohen, William S. and Mitchell, George J.  Men of Zeal: A Candid Inside Story of the Iran-Contra Hearings.  New York: Viking, 1988.

Congressional Campaign Finances.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1992.

Congressional Ethics.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1992.

Cooper, Joseph and MacKenzie, G. Calvin.  Editors. The House at Work.  Texas: University of Texas Press, 1981.

Crabb, Cecil V., Jr., and Pat M. Holt.  Invitation to Struggle: Congress, the President and Foreign Policy.  Fourth Edition.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1992.

Cranford, John.  Budgeting For America.  Second Edition.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1989.

Crovitz, L. Gordon, and Jeremy A. Rabkin, Editors. The Fettered Presidency: Legal Constraints on the Executive Branch.  Lanham, MD: American Enterprise Institute, 1989.

Curtis, Thomas B. and Westerfield, Donald L. Congressional Intent.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1992.

Davidson, Roger H., et al.  Congress in Crisis: Politics and Congressional Reform.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1966.

Davidson, Roger., and Oleszek, Walter J.  Congress Against Itself.  Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1979.

_______.  Congress and Its Members.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1985.

Deering, Christopher J., Ed.  Congressional Politics.  Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 1989.

DeGrazia, Alfred.  Congress: The First Branch of Government.  Washington, DC: The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1966.

Diamond, Robert A., Ed.  Origins and Development of Congress.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1976.

_______.  Powers of Congress.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1976.

Dickson, Paul and Clancy, Paul.  The Congress Dictionary: The Ways and Meanings of Capitol Hill.  Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

_______.  The Congressional Almanac.  Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Dodd, Lawrence C. and Schott, Richard L.  Congress and the Administrative State.  New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1979.

Dodd, Lawrence C., and Oppenheimer, Bruce I., Eds. Congress Reconsidered.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1989.

Eagleton, Thomas F.  War and Presidential Power: A Chronicle of Congressional Surrender.  New York: Liveright, 1974.

Edwards, George, III.  At the Margins: Presidential Leadership of Congress.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989.

Edwards, George C.  Presidential Influence in Congress.  San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1980.

Eidenberg, Eugene, and Morey, Roy D.  An Act of Congress: The Legislative Process and the Making of Education Policy.  New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1969.

Evans, C. Lawrence and Oleszek, Walter J.  Congress Under Fire: Reform Politics and the
Republican Majority.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

Fenno, Richard F., Jr.  Congressmen in Committees.  Berkeley, CA: Institute of Governmental Studies Press, University of California Berkeley, 1995.

_______.  The Emergence of a Senate Leader: Pete Domenici and the Reagan Budget. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1991.

_______.  Home Style.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1978.

_______.  Learning to Legislate: The Senate Education of Arlen Specter.  Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1991.

_______.  The Making of a Senator-Dan Quayle. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1989.

_______.  The Power of the Purse: Appropriations Politics in Congress.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1966.

Ferejohn, John A.  Pork Barrel Politics: Rivers and Harbors Legislation, 1947-1968.  Palto Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974.

Fiorina, Morris.  Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.

Fireside, Bryna J.  Is There a Woman in the House - or Senate?  Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Co., 1993.

Fisher, Louis.  Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.

_______.  The Politics of Shared Power: Congress and the President.  Third Edition. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1993.

_______.  President and Congress.  New York: The Free Press, 1972.

Fox, Harrison W., Jr., and Hammond, Susan Webb. Congressional Staffs.  New York: The Free Press, 1977.

Franklin, Daniel P.  Making Ends Meet: Congressional Budgeting in the Age of Deficits. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1993.

Galloway, George B.  History of the House of Representatives.  New York: Crowell, 1962.

Gimpel, James G.  Fulfilling the Contract: The First 100 Days.  Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1996.

Goehlert, Robert.  Congress and Lawmaking.  Santa Barbara, CA: Clio Press, 1979.

Goodwin, George.  The Little Legislatures.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1970.

Gottron, Martha V., Ed.  Budgeting for America.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1982.

Greenberg, Ellen.  House and Senate Explained: The People's Guide to Congress.  Scranton, PA: National Book Company (W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.), 1996.

Griffin, C. W.  Cleaning Out Congress: The Case for Term Limits.  Urbana, IL: Griffin Associates, 1992.

Harris, Fred R.  In Defense of Congress.  New York: Saint Martin's Press, Inc., 1995.

Harris, Joseph P.  The Advice and Consent of the Senate.  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1953.

_______.  Congressional Control of Administration.  Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1964.

Henry, H. Lon.  Congress: America's Privileged Class.  Westminister, MD: Random House (Prima Publishing), 1993.

Hess, Stephen.  Live from Capitol Hill!: Studies of Congress and the Media.  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1991.

Hinckley, Barbara.  Stability and Change in Congress.  San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers, 1978.

_______.  The Seniority System in Congress.  Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1982.

Horn, Stephen.  Unused Power: The Work of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1970.

How Congress Works.  Second Edition. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1991.

Huitt, Ralph K., and Peabody, Robert L.  Congress: Two Decades of Analysis.  New York: Harper and Row, 1969.

Inside Congress.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1979.

Jackley, John L.  Hill Rat: Blowing the Lid Off Congress.  Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 1992.

Jacobson, Gary C.  The Politics of Congressional Elections.  Third Edition.  New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1992.

Johnson, Cathy M.  The Dynamics of Conflict Between Bureaucrats and Legislators.  Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1992.

Jones, Charles O.  The Trusteeship Presidency: Jimmy Carter and The United States Congress.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.

_______.  The United States Congress.  Homewood, IL: The Dorsey Press, 1982.

Josephy, Jr., Alvin M.  On The Hill: A History of the American Congress.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.

Kaufman, Herbert.  Are Government Organizations Immortal?  Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1976.

Keefe, William J.  Congress and the American People.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980.

Keefe, William J., and Ogul, Morris S.  The American Legislative Process.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981.

Kettl, Donald F.  Deficit Politics.  New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.

Kingdon, John W.  Congressmen's Voting Decisions.  New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

_______.  Congressional Voting Decisions.  Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1989.

Kirby, J. C., Jr., and Rosencranz, A.  Congress and the Public Trust.  (Association of the Bar of the City of New York.)  New York: Atheneum, 1970.

Kofmehl, Kenneth.  Professional Staffs of Congress.  West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1977.

Kornberg, Allan.  Comparative Legislative Systems.  New York: The Free Press, 1971.

Lehman, John F.  Making War: The President and Congress from Barbary to Baghdad.  Old Tappan, NJ: The Free Press (Scribner's Reference), 1992.

LeLoup, Lance T.  Budgetary Politics.  Brunswick, OH: King's Court Communications, Inc., 1988.

LeLoup, Lance T. and Shull, Steven A.  Congress and the President: The Policy Connection. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1992.

Levine, Erwin L., and Wexler, Elizabeth M. PL94-142, An Act of Congress.  New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1981.

Light, Paul C.  Forging Legislation.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992.

Loewenberg, Gerhard, Samuel C. Patterson, and Malcolm Jewell, Editors.  Handbook of Legislative Research.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

Loomis, Burdett.  The New American Politician.  New York: Basic Books, 1988.

Makinson, Larry.  The Cash Constituents of Congress.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1992.

Malbin, Michael.  Unelected Representatives: Congressional Staff and the Future of Representation.  New York: Basic Books, 1980.

Manley, John F.  The Politics of Finance: The House Committee on Ways and Means.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.

Mann, Thomas E. and Ornstein, Norman J. Directors. A First Report of the Renewing Congress Project. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, 1992.

Margolis, Lawrence.  Executive Agreements and Presidential Power in Foreign Policy. New York: Praeger, 1985.

Matthews, Donald.  U.S. Senators and Their World.  Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.

Mayhew, David R.  Congress: The Electoral Connection.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974.

McKee, Clyde D., Jr., Ed.  Perspectives of a State Legislature.  Hartford, CT: Trinity College, Legislative Internship Program, 1980.

Mezey, Michael L.  Congress: The President and Public Policy.  Boulder, CO: Westview, 1989.

Miller, James A.  Running in Place: Inside the Senate.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

Morrow, William L.  Congressional Committees.  New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969.

Munson, Richard.  The Cardinals of Capitol Hill: The Men and Women Who Control Federal Spending. Emeryville, CA: Publishers Group West (Grove Atlantic), 1993.

Ogul, Morris S.  Congress Oversees the Bureaucracy.  Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976.

Oleszek, Walter J.  Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process.  Fourth Edition. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1984.

Onuf, Peter S., Ed.  Congress and the Confederation.  Hamden, CT: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991.

Oppenheimer, Bruce, I., Ed.  Congress Reconsidered.  Sixth Edition.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1993.

Ornstein, Norman J., Ed.  Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy.  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1995.

Ott, David J., and Ott, Attiat F.  Federal Budget Policy.  Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1977.

Paletz, David L.  Influence in Congress: An Analysis of the Nature and Effects of Conference Committees Utilizing Case Studies of Poverty, Traffic Safety, and Congressional Redistricting Legislation.  Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970.

Parker, Glenn R.  Characteristics of Congress: Patterns in Congressional Behavior.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989.

Patterson, James T.  Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-1939.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1967.

Peabody, Robert L.  Leadership in Congress.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.

Peabody, Robert L., et al.  To Enact a Law.  New York: Praeger, 1972.

Peabody, Robert L., and Polsby, Nelson W.  New Perspectives on the House of Representatives. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969.

Pressman, Jeffrey L.  House vs. Senate: Conflict in the Appropriations Process.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.

Price, David.  Who Makes the Laws?  Cambridge, MA: Schenkman, 1972.

Price, David E.  The Congressional Experience: A View from the Hill.  Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992.

Pyle, Christopher H. and Pious, Richard M. The President, Congress, and the Constitution.  New York: Free Press, 1984.

Redman, Eric.  The Dance of Legislation.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.

Reedy, George E.  The U.S. Senate.  New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1986.

Reeves, Andree E.  Congressional Committee Chairmen: Three Who Made an Evolution. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1993.

Riegle, Donald, with Armbrister, Trevor.  O Congress.  New York: Doubleday, 1972.

Rieselbach, Leroy N.  Congressional Reform.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1986.

________.  Congressional Politics: The Evolving Legislative System.  Second Edition. Scranton, PA: Harper Collins Trade Division (Westview Press), 1995.

Ripley, Randall B.  Majority Party Leadership in Congress.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.

_______.  Party Leaders in the House of Representatives.  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1967.

_______.  Power in the Senate.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1969.

Ripley, Randall B., and Franklin, Grace A. Congress, the Bureaucracy, and Public Policy.  Homewood, IL: The Dorsey Press, 1980.

Robinson, James A.  The House Rules Committee.  Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963.

Robinson, James W. and Colliau, Russ.  After the Revolution: A Citizen's Guide to the First Republican Congress in Forty Years.  Westminister, MD: Random House (Prima Publishing), 1995.

Robinson, William and Wellborn, Clay.  Knowledge, Power and the Congress.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1992.

Schick, Allen.  Congress and Money.  Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 1980.

_______.  Crisis in the Budget Process.  American Enterprise Institute, 1986.

Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr.  The Imperial Presidency.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.

Schneier, Edward V. and Gross, Bertram M.  Congress Today.  New York: Saint Martin's Press, Inc., 1993.

Schwab, Larry M.  Changing Patterns of Congressional Politics.  New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1980.

Scoble, H. M.  Ideology and Electoral Action.  1967.

Shuman, Howard E.  Politics and the Budget: The Struggle between the President and the Congress. Second Edition.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988.

Siff, Todd, and Weil, Alan.  Ruling Congress: A Study of How the House and Senate Rules Govern the Legislative Process.  New York: Grossman, 1975.

Simon, Paul.  Advice and Consent: Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork and the Intriguing History of the Supreme Court's Nomination Battles.  Mountainview, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co. (National Press Books), 1992.

Sinclair, Barbara.  The Transformation of the U.S. Senate.  Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Smith, Steven S.  American Congress.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995.

Smith, Steven S.  Call to Order: Politics in the House and Senate. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1989.

Smith, Steven S. and Deering, Christopher J. Committees In Congress.  Second Edition. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1990.

Spitzer, Robert.  President and Congress: Executive Hegemony at the Crossroads of American Government.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.

Stein, Robert M. and Bickers, Kenneth N.  Perpetuating the Pork Barrel: Policy Subsystems and American Democracy.  Port Chester, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Steiner, Gilbert.  The Congressional Conference Committee, Seventieth to Eightieth Congresses. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1951.

Stern, Gary M.  The Congress: America's Lawmakers.  Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1992.

Stockman, David A.  The Triumph of Politics.  Scranton, PA: Harper & Row, 1986.

Sundquist, J. L.  Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years.  Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1968.

_______.  The Decline and Resurgence of Congress.  Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1981.

Thompson, Dennis F.  Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1995.

Thurber, James A.  Editor.   Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1996.

Thurber, James A. and Davidson, Roger H.  Editors. Remaking Congress: Change and Stability in the 1990s.  Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1995.

Truman, David B.  The Congress and America's Future.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973.

_______.  The Congressinal Party.  New York: Wiley, 1959.

VanDoren, Peter M.  Politics, Markets, and Congressional Policy Choices.  Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Vogler, David J.  The Third House: Conference Committees in the U.S. Congress.  Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971.

Wachtel, Ted.  The Electronic Congress: A Blueprint for Participatory Democracy.  Pipersville, PA: Piper's Press, 1992.

Wayne, Stephen.  The Legislative Presidency.  New York: Harper & Row, 1978.

West, Darrell M.  Congress and Economic Policymaking.  Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1987.

Will, George F.  Restoration: Congress Term Limits and the Recovery of Deliberative Democracy.  Old Tappan, NJ: The Free Press, 1993.

Wilson, Woodrow.  Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics.  Peter Smith, 1958.  [Originally published in 1885.]