POS 6933 Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Legislatures Department of Political Science University of Florida Spring Semester 2005 Richard S. Conley, PhD Associate Professor (352) 392-0262 x 297 rconley@polisci.ufl.edu http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rconley This course will examine theoretical and empirical research on executives and legislatures, and their interrelations, quite broadly and from a comparative viewpoint. We will juxtapose the American separated system with semi-presidential systems such as France in the Fifth Republic and post-communist Russia, as well as with Westminster-style parliamentary systems such as the UK and Canada. We will compare cases of divided government, broadly conceptualized, to include coalition and minority governments in parliamentary democracies. We will explore cabinet formation, executive advisory structures, prime ministerial functions and politics (e.g., policy leadership, media relations, etc.), the presidentialisation thesis about the British premiership, and government termination and parliamentary control. Students are expected to attend all class meetings and actively participate in weekly discussions. Attendance and participation will comprise 25% of the course grade. The other 75% of the course grade will constitute a research paper of approximately 15-25 pages in length (journal length). The paper should represent an endeavour, which, fully developed through additional research an analysis, could be worthy of a conference presentation or a journal submission. Students are expected to theorize about a particular aspect of executivelegislative relations (single case or cross-comparisons are acceptable) and set forth a substantive question or problem, a hypothesis or set of hypotheses, and a methodological approach suitable to the question of inquiry. Students are encouraged to collect relevant data and undertake empirical analysis, as appropriate to the focus of their research, using the various frameworks in the course readings and discussions as a springboard. A preliminary outline of the paper (5-8 pp.) will be due mid-semester. Date TBA.
Readings Schedule January 4 Course Introduction January 11 Comparing Constitutional Designs Giovanni Sartori, Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry Into Structures, Incentives, and Outcomes. Arend Lijphart, Constitutional Design for Divided Societies, Journal of Democracy 15 (2) 2004: 96-109. January 18 The U.S. Presidency & Executive-Legislative Relations Charles O. Jones, The American Presidency: A Separationist Perspective, in Kurt von Mettenheim, ed., Presidential Institutions and Democratic Politics: Comparing Regional and National Contexts. Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, in Lijphart, ed., Parliamentary versus Presidential Government (#2). James Madison, Federalist Nos. 47 & 48, in Lijphart (#3). Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 70, in Lijphart (#4). Robert A. Dahl, At the Convention: The Paucity of Models, in Lijphart (#5). Harold J. Laski, The President and Congress, in Lijphart (#8). Committee on the Constitutional System, A Bicentennial Analysis of the American Political Structure, in Lijphart (#9). Douglas Verney, Parliamentary Government and Presidential Government, in Lijphart (#1). Juan J. Linz, The Virtues of Parliamentarism, in Lijphart (#31). Fred W. Riggs, Presidentialism: A Problematic Regime Type, in Lijphart (#32). Bert A. Rockman, The Performance of Presidents and Prime Ministers and of Presidential and Parliamentary Systems, in von Mettenheim (Chapter 2). January 25 Parliamentary Systems: Some Approaches Michael Laver, Models of Government Formation, Annual Review of Political Science June 1998 (available at www.annualreviews.org) Michael Laver, Government Termination, Annual Review of Political Science June 2003. John Huber, The Vote of Confidence in Parliamentary Democracies, American Political Science Review 90 (2) 1996: 269-82. Kaare Strøm, Minority Governments in Parliamentary Democracies, Comparative Political Studies 17 (2) 1984: 229-64. George Tsebelis, Veto Players and Institutional Analysis, Governance 13 (4) 2000: 441-74. Philip Cowley, Parliament: More Bleak House than Great Expectations, Parliamentary Affairs 57 (2) 2004: 301-14. Lanny Martin, The Government Agenda in Parliamentary Democracies, American Journal of Political Science 48 (3) 2004: 445-61.
February 1 Executives, Legislatures, and Governance in Anglo-American Systems Colin Campbell, The U.S. Presidency in Crisis: A Comparative Perspective. David Judge, Whatever Happened to Parliamentary Democracy in the United Kingdom? Parliamentary Affairs 57 (3) 2004: 682-701. Patrick Weller, Parliamentary Democracy in Australia, Parliamentary Affairs 57 (3) 2004: 630-45. David C. Docherty, Parliamentary Democracy in Canada, Parliamentary Affairs 57 (3) 2004: 613-29. February 8 Conceptualizing Divided Government Robert Elgie, ed., Divided Government in Comparative Perspective. Michael Laver and Kenneth A. Shepsle, Divided Government: America is not Exceptional, Governance 4 (1991): 250-69. B. Guy Peters, The Separation of Powers in Parliamentary Systems, in Kurt von Mettenheim, ed., Presidential Institutions and Democratic Politics (Chapter 3). February 15 Semi-Presidential Systems and the Dual Executive: France David S. Bell, Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France. Maurice Duverger, A New Political System Model: Semi Presidential Government, in Lijphart (#18). Robert Elgie, La cohabitation de longue durée: Studying the 1997-2002 Experience, Modern & Contemporary France 10 (2002): 297-311. February 22 Semi-Presidential Systems and the Dual Executive: Russia Eugene Huskey, Presidential Power in Russia. March 1 no class; Spring Break March 8 Historical and Modern Perspectives on Presidential and Prime Ministerial Leadership in Anglo Systems Patricia Lee Sykes, Presidents and Prime Ministers: Conviction Politics in the Anglo-American Tradition. March 15 Going Public Compared: The British Prime Minister Michael Foley, The British Presidency: Tony Blair and the Politics of Public Leadership. Samuel Kernell, Going Public (recommended). March 22 Governing and Policy-Making: The British Prime Minister Graham P. Thomas, Prime Minister and Cabinet Today.
March 29 Governing in a Global Context: The British Prime Minister Richard Rose, The Prime Minister in a Shrinking World. April 5 Presidentialism in Eastern European and Latin American Settings Scott Mainwaring, Presidentialism in Latin America, in Lijphart (#13). Harry Kantor, Efforts Made by Various Latin American Countries to Limit the Power of the President, in Lijphart (#12). Carlos Santiago Nino, Ideas and Attempts at Reforming the Presidentialist System of Government in Latin America, in Lijphart (#15). Postcommunist Presidents, ed. Ray Taras. Selectively. April 12 Roundtable Discussion and Presentation of Research Papers April 19 Roundtable Discussion and Presentation of Research Papers
Required Books Bell, David S. 2000. Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France. New York: Oxford Campbell, Colin. 1998. The U.S. Presidency in Crisis: A Comparative Perspective. New York: Oxford Elgie, Robert (ed). 2001. Divided Government in Comparative Perspective. New York: Oxford Foley, Michael. 2000. The British Presidency. New York: St. Martin s Press. Huskey, Eugene. 1999. Presidential Power in Russia. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Lijphart, Arend (ed). 1992. Parliamentary versus Presidential Government. New York: Oxford Rose, Richard. 2001. The Prime Minister in a Shrinking World. Cambridge, UK: Blackwell. Sartori, Giovanni. 1996. Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes. New York: New York Sykes, Patricia Lee. 2000. Presidents and Prime Ministers: Conviction Politics in the Anglo- American Tradition. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. Taras, Ray. 1997. Postcommunist Presidents. Cambridge: Cambridge Thomas, Graham P. 1998. The Prime Minister and Cabinet Today. New York: St. Martin s Press. Recommended (chapters will be available on reserve from Professor Conley) Von Mettenheim, Kurt (ed.). 1997. Presidential Institutions and Democratic Politics: Comparing Regional and National Contexts. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins