Michael S. Lynch

POLS 8140: The Legislative Process
Fall 2019

Class Meeting: Thursday 6:30PM-9:15PM, Baldwin 301
Office Hours: Tuesday 9:00AM-11:00AM or by appointment, Baldwin 416

Course Syllabus

  • Syllabus


    Course Description

    This course is intended to provide students with a survey of the academic literature on the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Congress is arguably the most studied political institution in the world and the amount of literature on Congress is overwhelming. This course will focus on institutional studies of the House and Senate, but will attempt to introduce all major topics common to the study of Congress.


    Calendar of Discussion Leaders

    Discussion leaders have a couple of duties. First, they are responsible for identifying an additional article they think would be a good addition to the week's readings. Send me the article early in the week and be prepared to tell the class about the article. Second, they are responsible for emailing discussion questions to the class on the Thursday morning before class. Finally, they are responsible for leading the class discussion.
  • Introduction (August 15): Lynch
  • Motives and Representation (August 22): Mariliz
  • Institutional Analysis (September 5): Austin and Christian
  • Parties 1 (September 12): Mitchell and Mariliz
  • Parties 2 (September 19): Christian and Allison
  • Parties 3 (September 26): Mackenzie and Mitchell
  • Committees (October 3): Mitchell and Mackenzie
  • Rules and Procedure (October 10): Allison and Adam
  • Senate 1 (October 17): Austin and Christian
  • Senate 2 (October 24): Allison and Adam
  • Separation of Powers 1 (October 31): Mackenzie and Austin
  • Separation of Powers 2 (November 7): Adam and Mariliz
  • Measurement (November 14): Lynch and special guest, Tony Madonna