Public Policy & Administration 260
Working With Legislatures

Overview

The purpose of PPA 260 is to enhance your effectiveness working with legislative bodies by increasing your knowledge and understanding of legislatures. The seminar will examine the basic structure, functions and constitutional context of a legislature and the characteristics of legislators. From these basics, we will proceed to the formal and informal rules, structures, processes and procedures that comprise the internal environment of a legislature. The external environment comes next with a focus on elections, interest groups, constituents, governors and other forces impacting legislatures. Finally, we will examine current trends that threaten to fundamentally change the role of legislatures in a representative democracy. As the purpose is enhancing your ability to work effectively with legislative bodies, a major continuing focus will be on legislative decision-making.

The class will be conducted as a seminar, with some lectures. Each student will be expected to come to class with all assigned readings done and thus fully prepared to participate in the seminar. I also expect regular attendance; anyone missing four or more seminars will not receive a passing grade.

Assignments & Grades

The seminar will include writing assignments and a final take-home exam. The written assignments are:

Each student will be assigned a bill currently pending in the state Legislature. Every week, students will be required to hand-in a 3x5 index card indicating any and all actions taken in the previous week affecting the bill (e.g., bill referrals, committee hearings, etc.). Students are expected to make use of the various legislative publications (Daily File, Histories, etc.) to complete this exercise.

Each student will be assigned a bill, either from the current session or a previous session of the state Legislature. Students will write an analysis of their bills, maximum of two pages, and bring to class sufficient copies to distribute to all class members. The analysis should clearly and concisely state:

• Bill number, author, co-authors
• Subject
• Existing law
• Proposed changes in the law
• Critical issues
• Arguments for and against

The bill analysis will be due on March 7. Each student will be given exactly five minutes to present their analysis. Grade will be based both on the written analysis and the oral presentation.

Each student will be assigned a book to read and report on to the class. Book reports are to be written, two to three pages, singled space with standard margins. Students will bring to the class sufficient copies of the book report to distribute to all class members. Students will give oral presentations on their book report. The oral presentation is an opportunity to practice giving relevant and important information in a concise format to an audience whose attention will be mixed -- much like presenting a bill to a legislative committee or city council. No report will exceed five minutes. At the end of five minutes, the class will have an opportunity to ask questions. Grade will be based both on the written report and the oral presentation.

The seminar will be divided into two sets of two groups each. Each set of two groups will be assigned a proposal, based on an actual legislative bill or proposed city or county measure. One group will advocate for the proposal while the second will oppose it. On May 16 the seminar will act as a legislative body while the first set and then the second set presents arguments for or against the proposal. The design, structure, format of the presentation is entirely up to each group but groups will have exactly 15 minutes for the presentation with up to 15 additional minutes for questions, if the seminar has any.

The final exam will be take-home. The exam will be distributed at the end of the May 16 seminar and due to me no later than 6:00 p.m. on May 22, 2002.

The PPA Program has adopted a style manual for use in all PPA courses. Use of the Style Manual for Political Science 1993 American Political Science Association, Committee on Publications, is mandatory for all written reports.

Grades will be determined as follows:

Required Readings

James Richardson. Willie Brown: A Biography. 1996

Alan Rosenthal. The Decline of Representative Democracy: Process, Participation & Power in State Legislatures. 1998.

Class Reader (to be distributed during the class).

Note: Willie Brown: A Biography is best read from start to finish and I would encourage you to do so. However, many chapters are not directly salient to the class while others are most effectively used out of the author’s sequence. Thus, the assigned readings are for specific chapters for specific days.

Class Schedule:

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