* Indicates an item included in the reader.

Other items are available from the course website. Note that some posted items are copyrighted and thus accessible only via a paid subscription. UCSD Libraries offer you access to these materials, but you must be using a UCSD computer or accessing the site through a proxy server or Virtual Private Network. Please see computing or library staff for assistance.

***Go to this week's readings***

I. Basic Tools: Collective Action and Delegation

October 1

1. Introduction

Reading: Review this syllabus before class, but I promise no cold-calling about its contents! (There may be some practice cold-calling about general topics, though these will not be counted for or against your participation grade.

October 3

2. Collective Action

Reading: *Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, pp 5-16, 33-36, 46-48, 132-135, 165-167.

Key questions: What is a public good, and why do they tend to be undersupplied? How do groups organize? What is the free-rider problem, and how can it be overcome? Why do some groups remain "latent"?

Key concepts: Lobby groups, interest groups, free rider, latent group

Homework due by 9:00 a.m. (The question will be posted at the PMP website announcements page.

October 8

3. Delegation and the Question of Who Has Ultimate Authority

Reading:

*Roderick Kiewiet and Mathew McCubbins, The Logic of Delegation, Chapter 2.

Key questions: What problems does organizational structure solve? What problems does it create? How are the problems created by delegation mitigated within an organizational structure?

Key concepts: Principals, agents, agency loss

October 10

4. Delegating from Voters to Representatives: Overview of Major Alternative Electoral Systems

Today you will select your own PIASO representatives via STV!

And today, voters in the Canadian province of Ontario will be deciding whether to change their future elections to MMP (see Web reading below)

Reading:

*Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, pp. 144–64.

Resources for understanding electoral rules (consider these part of your required reading):

1. Learn about instant runoff voting (IRV) and see the ballot used for an IRV election in San Francisco.
2. Read about STV in Ireland, and a proposal for STV in British Columbia (on the site at that link, scroll down to the item “About BC-STV”; the fact sheet and animation, linked at the upper right of the page are also useful); view the ballot used to elect the city council of Cambridge, Massachusetts by STV (and note the instructions to voters).
3. Read about Ontario’s referendum today and its proposed “MMP” system.

Key concepts: Plurality (First-past-the-post), majority, runoff (two-round or “instant”), proportional representation (PR), single transferable vote (STV), district magnitude. 
Note on sources: The www.fairvote.org site is hosted by an advocacy group and its being referenced in this syllabus does not necessarily represent endorsement of the organization’s positions.

II. Democracy’s Delegation Chain: Voting, Representative Institutions, and Bureaucracy

October  15
5.  “Engineering” the Representation of Interests: James Madison and the Federalist Papers

Readings:
1.  The Federalist Papers, Nos. 10 & 51; Also recommended: No. 73.
2.  *Kernell & Jacobson, The Logic of American Politics, pp. 50-58 (“Drafting a New
Constitution”)
3. On a recent policy controversy: House Passes Children's Health Bill, and Message to the House of Representatives, October 3, 2007.

Key Questions: What were the problems with the Articles of Confederation? What solutions did Madison propose? How does the US Constitution differ from Madison’s proposal? What is meant by “popular sovereignty,” “extended republic,” and “faction”? How has the US Constitution shaped policy-making in the Children’s Health Care controversy, and how might other institutional designs shaped it differently?

October 17

6. Democratic Constitutional Systems: How the Structure of Agents and How They are (S)elected Affects How the Voters’ Authority is Delegated

Reading:

2. *Matthew S.R. Palmer, "Toward an Economics of Comparative Political Organization: Examining Ministerial Responsibility," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization.

Thinking in terms of the delegation of authority, how do presidential and parliamentary systems structure authority differently? What does it mean to differentiate systems on the origin and survival of executive authority? What do the terms Westminster model and majoritarian parliamentary system mean? It is often said that the executive cabinet is dominant in a Westminster system, but how can that be?

October 29

7. Delegation, Collective Action, and Political Parties

Reading:

1. G. Bingham Powell, Jr., “Political Representation in Comparative Politics,” Annual Review of Political Science, 2004, 7:273–96.

2. Germany: New Government Pact Finally in Place (Deutsche Welle, 13 November, 2005).

3. Take a quick look at Political Compass. (Optional: Take the 'test' yourself!)

Recommended: The posts of 13 June and 27 May on the Irish election of 2007 at Fruits & Votes.

Key questions:  How are voters’ collective interests represented differently in PR and majoritarian (e.g. plurality) systems? What difference does the electoral system make to  the way authority is delegated under parliamentary government? What is the role of geography and districting arrangements in structuring the delegation relationship between voters and their government?

Key concepts: Proportionality vs. responsiveness, marginal or “swing” districts, party label.

October 31

8. Public Administration: Delegation from Politicians to Bureaucrats

Reading:

*Terry M. Moe and Michael Caldwell, "The Institutional Foundations of Democratic Government: A Comparison of Presidential and Parliamentary Systems."

Key questions: How, according to the authors, do bureaucratic structures differ in Britain and the United States? What is the logic of delegation that explains the different structures that we see in different forms of democratic systems? Why are bureaucrats given more "autonomy" in Britain and why does the American bureaucracy operate under such strict procedures?

November 5

9. Policymaking in a Parliamentary System: Economic and Electoral Reform in New Zealand

Reading:

1. Daniel Nielson, "The Politics of Economic Reform in New Zealand" (IR/PS case study)

2. Royce Carroll, "New Zealand Politics: The Multiparty Era" (IR/PS case study)

3. News items regarding 2005 elections and politics of the current government

Supplementary items (These short items are not required reading, per se, but glancing at them will help you understand the 2005 election and the formation of the current government.

1. Confidence and supply agreements as stated by the Labour Party, New Zealand First, and United Future

2. Green Party statement on the government

3. New Zealand First delivers for Tauranga

Short paper due by 9:00 a.m. (topic have been posted at the PMP Conference on First Class. The question for Part 1 was posted October 30; the question for Part 2 was posted November 1.)

November 7

10. Policymaking in a Parliamentary System: Majority-Party Coordination and Reform in Japan

Reading:

1. Masuhiko Tatebayashi and Margaret McKean, "Vote Division and Policy Differentiation of LDP Members under SNTV/MMD in Japan" (tables in xls)

2. News coverage of the 2005 election.

3. Additional recent news briefs will be posted at the Conference.

Key questions: Why did the Liberal Democratic Party need its candidates to differentiate themselves under SNTV? What are the different strategies used by various LDP members to adapt to the incentives of SNTV, and why? What is the significance of the way the LDP organized itself? How have the incentives changed under the new electoral system?

November 12: No class (US national holiday)

November 14

11. First-half review and discussion

Reading: None

Brief presentation, with opportunity for students to ask questions about material covered thus far.

November 19

12. IN-CLASS MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Room may be different from the regular classroom; see the Announcements page as the date nears . It is very important that students pace themselves in order to finish a long exam in 80 minutes.

Note schedule change: The topics for Nov. 21 and 26 have been changed

III. Adding Institutional and Societal Complexity: Presidentialism, Federalism and Multi-ethnic Politics in the Developed and Developing World

November 21

13. Federalism: Multiple Levels of Delegation and Policy-Making

Reading: 

*Alfred Stepan, “Toward a New Comparative Politics of Federalism, (Multi)Nationalism, and Democracy: Beyond Rikerian Federalism,” in Stepan, ed., Arguing Comparative Politics (Oxford, 2001).

Key questions: What is the significance of federalism? What does Stepan mean by "demos-constraining" federalism? What institutions and party characteristics influence to the degree to which a federation is demos-constraining?

November 26

14. Policymaking in a Presidential System: Delegating for Trade Policy in the United States

Reading: 

1. *  I. M. Destler, American Trade Politics, ch. 6 (Washington D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 1992).

2. Lael Brainard and Hal Shapiro, "Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority," Brookings Institution Policy Brief #91, December, 2001.

3. News items on the US steel trade dispute, 2002-03 and 2004.

4. Possibly an additional brief trade-policy update (which would be posted at the Conference)

Key questions:  Why did the U.S. Congress delegate trade policy authority to the executive branch?  What political problems did members of congress solve for themselves by delegating?  What controls did congress, as principal, place on its agent in trade policy-making?  Does this delegation make a difference in the policy that results?

November 28

15. Federalism, the National Budget, and the Supreme Court: The Case of Mexico

Primary reading: Mónica Pachón-Buitrago and Matthew Søberg Shugart, "Turf wars in Mexico: Battles between Congress and the Executive," IR/PS Case Study.

Second short paper due by 9:00 a.m. Paper topic and some related news updates will be posted at the Conference.

IV. The Political Institutions of Authoritarian Systems

December 3

16. Institutions and Delegation in Authoritarian Systems:  The Case of China

Reading: 

1. *Susan Shirk, "Reciprocal Accountability and Delegation by Consensus."

2. Gang Lin and Susan Shirk, eds., The 16th CCP Congress and Leadership Transition in China. Required readings are the Introduction (pp. 1-4) and articles by Shirk (pp. 5-9) and Miller (pp. 10-14). The rest is recommended. Note in particular the useful table on the leaders that appears on pp. 45-6).

Key questions:  How does the logic of delegation work in authoritarian systems, and particularly in the Leninist system of China?  What is reciprocal accountability, and how is it different from hierarchical accountability?  Who are the principals in China, and who  are the agents? (There has been a new Party Congress since the Congress discussed in the articles of the Lin and Shirk edited collection of articles. The final exam will include questions about this recent Congress, based in part on news updates that will be provided after this session.)

December 5

17. Course Wrap-up

Readings and other information about our final session will be posted at the PMP Conference.

December 11

Final examination, 11:30 to 2:30

Further information will be posted at the PMP Conference