Princeton University
Woodrow Wilson School
Graduate Program
Fall term 1994
WWS 521 Professor Jennifer Hochschild

The Domestic Policy Process

This course examines the distinctive features of policy making in the American political context. It uses the politics of race as the vehicle for analyzing how and why domestic policies take the shape they do~ We will look at both institutions Congress, the media, city governments and processes budgeting, elections, citizen protest. We will range from broad national policies, such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to detailed questions of implementation, such as why special education students are taught in a school basement. We will ask what policies are promulgated, why them and not others, what policies should be promulgated instead, and how elements of the political system can be changed to produce better policies.

Each week will focus on one topic. The readings and initial lecture will give us the resources both to address a broad question relating to the policy process e.g. what role have the courts played in policy making during the past few decades? and the details of an illustrative example e.g. what role have the courts played in desegregating schools?

Course Requirements

Reading:

The following books are available in the U Store, and are on reserve at the Woodrow Wilson School Library:

* Jeffrey Berry et al., The Rebirth of Urban Democracy (Brookings Institution, 1993)

* Edward Carmines and James Stimson, Issue Evolution (Princeton University Press, 1990)

* Thomas Edsall and Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction (Norton, 19 9 1 )

* Jennifer Hochschild, The New American Dilemma (Yale University Press, 1984)

* John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives. and Public Policies (Scott, Foresman, 1984)

* Martin Linsky, Impact (Norton, 1986)

* James Morone, The Democratic Wish (Basic Books, 1990)

* Paul Peterson, City Limits (University of Chicago Press, 1981)

* Gerald Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope (University of Chicago Press, 1991)

* Raphael Sonenshein, Politics in Black and White (Princeton University Press, 1993)

* Charles Whalen and Barbara Whalen, The Longest Debate (Mentor Books, 1985)

* James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy (Basic Books, 1989)

Participation:

It should go without saying, but will not, that this course is a seminar and will succeed or fail as a consequence of your involvement. That holds true collectively the discussion will only be as good as everyone makes it and individually your evaluation will depend heavily on your thoughtful and informed (but not necessarily voluminous) contribution.

Papers:

You have a choice of one relatively long or two relatively short papers. If you do one, it will be due at the end of reading period, on January 10, 1995. If you do two, the first will be due December 13, 1994 and the second on January 16, 1995. The paper(s) may do either of two things: pursue some aspect of the policy process with regard to race in more detail than we have done in class, or apply the general material that we have read in class to some other domestic policy(ies). Thus a paper could look at "when and why courts relinquish control over desegregated school systems" or at "how Kingdon's notion of agenda setting explains tax reform in the 1980s." The only constraints are that l) the paper topics must address some aspect of the domestic policy process; 2) the papers may begin with but must move beyond material that we have read or discussed in the seminar; and 3) I need to approve the topic and your approach to it.

Papers must be turned in on the date they are due.

There will be no final exam

Grading:

Seminar participation will account for roughly half of your grade, and the paper(s) for the other half. (If you do two papers, each will count for about one fourth of the total grade.) I use qualifiers here because I reserve the right to adjust grades either up or down, depending on such things as trajectory, effort, special circumstances, and so on. You need to complete each component to Pass the course.

Class Schedule

Note: all material not contained in the books available for purchase will be on reserve in the Woodrow Wilson School library.

September 12: American Public Policy Making, and the Role of Race in American Politics

September 19: Does Race Shape the Structure of the Policy making Process?

Carmines and Stimson, Issue Evolution

Hochschild, The New American Dilemma, chapters 1, 2

September 26: Does Race Shape the Content of Policy Choices?

Edsall and Edsall, Chain Reaction, chapters 1, 5-12

October 3: Getting Policy Issues on the Agenda

Kingdon, Agendas. Alternatives. and Public Policies

Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, Introduction, chapter 1

October 10: Congressional and Presidential Policy making

Whalen and Whalen, The Longest Debate, chapters 2-8, Conclusion

Douglas Arnold, The Logic of Congressional Action, chapters 4-6

October 17: The Courts and Policeman

Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope, Introduction, chapters 1-5, 12

Michael Rebell and Arthur Block, Educational Policy Making and the Courts, chapters 1-7, 10

October 31: Bureaucratic Policy making

Wilson, Bureaucracy, chapters 2-12, 17-20

November 7: Public Opinion, the Media, and Policies

Linsky, Impact

Robert Shapiro and Lawrence Jacobs, "The Relationship Between Public

Opinion and Public Policy"

Robert Entman, "Blacks in the News," Journalism Ouarterly

November 14: Can City Officials Make Policies?

Peterson, City Limits, chapters 1-4, 7-9, 11

Hochschild, The New American Dilemma, chapter 4

November 21: Can Citizens' Organizations Affect Policy making?

Berry et al., The Rebirth of Urban Democracy, chapters 1, 2, 5-7, 11, 12

Hochschild, The New American Dilemma, chapter 5, pp. 93-112

November 28: Leadership

Sonenshein, Politics in Black and White, chapters 6-16

Hochschild, The New American Dilemma, chapter 5, pp. 112-145

December 5: What Is To Be Done?

James Morone, The Democratic Wish, Introduction, chapters 4-6, 8

Hochschild, The New American Dilemma, chapter 6