This course can be taken in-person or remotely online.
This course is designed to familiarize students with the inner workings of the legislative process, federal and state. This will be done through reviewing the structure of state legislatures and the Congress, as well as by studying method and nuance of the workings of these bodies politic. We will use various issues before state legislatures and the Congress as the vehicles for our discussions. A wide range of issues will be covered during the semester. Special attention will be focused on the 2016 elections and their results: 1) Gerrymandering of Congressional and Legislative districts, 2) Term Limits, good, bad, or indifferent, and, 3) Campaign Finance. Be familiar with the “Citizens United” decision, 501 (c) 4’s, 527’s, and other details of campaign finance in all its complexities. You will be assigned readings from multiple publications. Examples: The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Stratfor, Time, U.S. News and World Report, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and other media.
