American Government

I. THE SETTING OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.

1. Constitutional Government.


John Locke, Second Treatise, Of Civil Government.



John P. Roche, The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action.



Charles A. Beard, Framing the Constitution.



James Madison, Federalist 47, 48, 51.



Laurence H. Tribe and Michael C. Dorf, How Not to Read the Constitution.

2. Federalism.


Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 16, 17.



James Madison, Federalist 44.



James Madison, Federalist 39.



James Bryce, The Merits of the Federal System.



McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheaton 316 (1819).



United States v. Morrison (2000).



Morton Grodzins, The Federal System.



David Broder, A Republic Subverted.

3. Civil Liberties and Civil Rights.


Antifederalist Paper No. 84 On the Lack of a Bill of Rights.



James Madison, Before the House of Representatives in 1789 Proposing Amendments to Add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution.



Gideon v. Wainwright 372 U.S. 335 (1963).



Oliver Wendall Holmes, The Need to Maintain a Free Marketplace of Ideas.



New York Times v. Sullivan 376 U.S 254 (1964).



Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 (1896).



Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 347 U.S. 483 (1954).



Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 349 U.S. 294 (1955) .



Engel v. Vitale 370 U.S. 421 (1962).



Zelman v. Simmon-Harris Supreme Court of the United States (2002).



Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973).



Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena 515 U.S. 200 ( 1995).

II. POLITICAL PARTIES, ELECTORAL BEHAVIOR, AND INTEREST GROUPS.

4. Political Parties and the Electorate.


James Madison, Federalist 10.



E. E. Schattschneider, Party Government.



California Democratic Party et al. V. Jones, Secretary of State of California, et al. Supreme Court of the United States (2000).



Report of the Committee of Political Parties, American Political Science Association, Toward a More Responsible Two Party System.



Martin P. Wattenberg, Perspectives on American Political Parties.



David R. Mayhew, Divided We Govern.



V.O. Key, Jr., A Theory of Critical Elections.



Benjamin Ginsberg and Martin Shefter, Politics by Other Means.



Bernard R. Berelson, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and William N. McPhee, Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory.



V.O. Key, Jr., The Responsible Electorate.



Buckley V. Vaelo 263 424 U.S. (1976).



Federal Election Commission v. Colorado Republican Federal Campagin Committee (Colorado II).



Senator Mitch McConnell, et al. v. Federal Election Commission.



Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, Myths and Realities about the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.



Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission 518 U.S. 604 (1996) .

5. Interest Groups.


Jeffrey M. Berry, Madison's Dilemma.



David B. Truman, The Governmental Process.



Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism: The Indictment.



Mark J. Rozell and Clyde Wilcox, Interest Groups and the American Political System.



Larry J. Sabato, The Misplaced Obsession with PACs.

6. The Presidency.


Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 70.



Clinton Rossiter, The Presidency-Focus of Leadership.



Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power.



Thomas E. Cronin and Michael A. Genovese, Presidential Paradoxes.



James David Barber, The Presidential Character.



Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer 343 U.S. 579 (1952).



United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation 343 U.S. 304 (1936).



Aaron Wildavsky, The Two Presidencies.



Sidney M. Milkis, The Presidency and Political Parties.



Nelson W. Polsby, American Presidential Elections: The Last One and the Next One.

7. The Bureaucracy.


Peter Woll, Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power.



James Q. Wilson, The Rise of the Bureaucratic State.

8. Congress.


James Madison, Federalist 53, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63.



Morris P. Fiorina, The Rise of the Washington Establishment.



Lawrence C. Dodd, Congress and the Quest for Power.



Timothy E. Cook, Media Power and Congressional Power.



Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol.



Richard F. Fenno, Jr., If, As Ralph Nader Says, Congress Is “The Broken Branch,” How Come We Love Our Congressmen So Much?.



Nelson W. Polsby, Congress-Bashing for Beginners.



David R. Mayhew, Congress: The Electoral Connection.



Richard F. Fenno, Jr., Home Style and Washington Career.

9. The Judiciary.


Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78.



Marbury v. Madison 1 Cranch 137 (1803).



John P. Roche, Judicial Self-Restraint.



Bush v. Gore United States Supreme Court (2000).



William J. Brennan, Jr., How the Supreme Court Arrives at Decisions.



Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Constitutional Liberty and the Right to Abortion.



Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Liberty, Privacy, and the Right to Abortion.



Justice Antonin Scalia, Liberty and Abortion: A Strict Constructionist's View.

Appendix 1 The Declaration of Independence.
Appendix 2 The Constitution of the United States.