PSCI 130, Lecture Outline

April 1
Both Ends of Pennsylvania Avenue: How (If At All) Can
Washingtons Elected Leaders Still Produce General Interest
Legislation? (Syllabus, page 6)

Under the right conditions: So, Separated Institutions Sharing

Powers, Strained Legislative-Executive Relations, Early Polarization and
All, Why Did the TRB of 1986 Become Federal Law?
-Birnbaum and Murray say generally interest legislation can pass under
the right conditions but dont really touch on what these are
- President Reagans support was huge
-Bipartisan support from a variety of powerful people is important
-TRB 1986 lowers taxes for 80% or Americans and finances this by
raising corporate taxes and taxes on other 20% of Americans
-TRB 1986 did not completely overhaul tax system
-Was gradually introduced and many exemptions remained
-Lots of changes were undone a few years after they were
introduced
-Legislation often gets messed with (undone, expanded,
etc.) after it is passed

R. Douglas Arnolds The Logic of Congressional Action (1990): Closed

Doors, Strange-Bedfellows Legislative Coalitions, Political RealistReformers, and Comprehensive Action
-1980s executive/legislative relations strained (Republican president
and Democratic House)
-Behind closed doors
-No public supervision and staffers were rarely present
(particularly in committee meetings)
-Very few recorded votes (mostly for agreed upon amendments)
-Allows legislators to vote conscious instead of worry about
image
-Only after all issues have been dealt with in private is the bill
revealed to public
-No leaks
-This shit doesnt happen today

Closed Doors: Rostenkowski, Packwood (quote, p. 260)

-Packwood says publicly voting exposes a legislator to interest groups
while privately voting allows them to do what they want

Congressional Rules, Procedural Camouflages and the Traceability

Chain)
-Traceability chain is the idea that interest groups can trace the
presence or lack of loopholes to individual legislators
-They can then hold lawmakers accountable for not supporting
their interests
-Makes legislators accountable to interest groups
-Avoided by working behind closed doors

Legislative Coalitions: Three Basic StrategiesProcedural,

Modification, and Persuasion
-Procedural
-Break traceability chain through use of Congressional
procedures so legislators can make unpopular
-Modification
-Persuasion
-Fundamentally changing preferences of legislators, people,
interest groups

Persuasion Strategy: Assume a Great Communicating, Popular

President? (pp. 21-22, 169-171)
-Useful for emotional issues (not really tax reform)
-Can appeal to sensibilities of legislators
-Good examples are early tobacco and environment reform
-Research comes out showing tobacco is harmful
-Enables legislators to be convinced despite tobacco
private interest groups

Political Realists, if Not Enlightened Statesmen, at the Helms on the

Hill and in the West Wing
-

Comprehensive, not Incremental, Action

Want to Block Any Such Action, Comprehensive or Incremental?: Just

Let the Sunshine in Everywhere, Dont Delegate Tough Choices to
Chairpersons, Allow Amendments Galore (Including Ones that Are Not
Neutral in Their Effects)Just Dont Use Procedures Etc. to Weaken the
Traceability Chain

From the TRB of 1986 to Dodd-Frank 2010: Still Broken (pp. Kaiser,
pp. 378-384)
-Still broken because bipartisanship is incredibly difficult
-Few incentives to reach across the aisle
-Not any opportunities to socialize across aisle
-People dont stay in Washington but go to home states
-Fewer trips abroad
-People more loyal to parties than to institution of Congress

The Kill Bill Caucus: Separated Institutions Sharing Powers in the

Hyper-Polarized, Post-Goldwater/JFK, Big Government by Proxy Era
-When political parties stop being a method to bridge separation
powers and bringing geographically diverse voters together and
instead become another source of division, you get modern stagnation
-

So, whats General Interest Anyway?No. 10 Revisited: Not Adverse

to the Rights of Other Citizens or to the Permanent and Aggregate
Interests of the Community (Mere Words?)
-When people cant agree on whats good, it causes potentially fatal
divisions within the government
-Gucci Gulch book assumes that everyone sees tax code reform as
general interest legislation
-Now people dont really know what general interest legislation looks
like
-People also dont know what factions are now
-Different people and groups think different groups are factions
-Things are so polarized that people cant even meet to discuss
common facts/research/criteria
-People are so caught up in how to do it that they forget to
determine what it is