POL 105: Legislative Process

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POL 105 Legislative Process

• SYLLABUS AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• WHY STUDY LEGISLATURES?
• HOW CAN (SHOULD?) WE STUDY LEGISLATURES?
• AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPATIAL THEORY OF
  COMMITTEE VOTING

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The Science in Political Science

• What is science?
• Ordeshook (1995, 176) the pursuit of the
  discovery of first principles and the
  identification of the empirical generalities to
  which they pertain
• Kuhn (1962, 162) any field in which progress is
  marked
• the goal is inference and procedures must be
  replicable and public
• the procedures we use are common in the natural
  sciences detailed empirical analyses of basic
  phenomena, testing hypotheses, performing
  experiments, drawing statistical inferences in
  order to uncover important properties and
  mechanics of political subject matter rigorous
  peer review of research

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Hard politics

• Politics produces winners and losers
• Politics presupposes disagreement collective
  decision-making where not all individual
  objectives can be met simultaneously
• On some issues, compromise is impossible thus
  outcomes will be seen by some as illegitimate
• There is no alternative to politics
• Politics presupposes collective action
• Even if there is agreement on ends, there may be
  disagreement on means
• Politics is an on-going enterprise losers and
  winners may switch places over time

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Hard science

• In the natural sciences, (at least the Newtonian
  variety), the subject matter is not significantly
  influenced by its study
• In social sciences, the objects of study respond
  to being studied
• the objects often do not welcome analysis
• the objects often are more passionate than are
  the scientists
• lots of people already think they understand
  politics political scientists have to contend
  with these cultural beliefs in order to make
  progress

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Why study legislatures?

• DO LEGISLATURES MATTER TODAY?
• HOW WOULD WE KNOW?
• TWO CURRENT EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS THAT
  MIGHT BE RELATED TO LEGISLATIVE (DIS)FUNCTION
• The California budget crisis. Who is at fault?
  Why has it happened? Can it be fixed? At what
  cost (and to whom)?
• The war (and peace) in Iraq. Why did we go to
  war? What limits the presidents ability to act
  militarily? Who is in charge in Iraq? Why are
  they doing what they are doing?

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HOW CAN (SHOULD?) WE STUDY LEGISLATURES?

• What are our goals in studying a legislature?
• Description
• data-gathering and atheoretical model fitting.
  Data doesnt interpret itself. What data should
  one collect? How should it be organized?
• Explanation
• is the construction of theories that map classes
  of inputs to classes of outputs. A model is an
  application of a theory to a class of events. An
  anecdote is a theory that explains one event.
• Prediction
• includes within-sample and out-of-sample
  phenomena. Within-sample predictions are the
  usual tests of explanations. Out-of-sample
  predictions offer harder tests of explanations.

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WHAT DO LEGISLATURES AND LEGISLATORS DO?

• Create legislation pass new laws
• Conduct oversight collect data on and try to
  influence bureaucratic implementation
• Run for reelection

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Why we care

• We care about legislatures because the laws they
  pass and the policies that bureaucrats implement
  affect our welfare.
• We care because the laws they fail to pass and
  the bureaucratic implementations they fail to
  effect also affect our welfare.

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What you should learn

• Electoral rules and procedures may have
  centripetal or centrifugal effects on politics
• numbers and types of candidates or parties
• policy platforms that candidates promise and
  pursue
• Institutional rules matter
• How do we decide how to decide?
• How do we decide?
• Where are the bottlenecks? Who is privileged in
  group decision-making and why?