Instructor: Craig Curtis (Bradley Hall, room 486) ph.
677-2492, e-mail: rcc@bradley.edu
home page: http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~rcc/
Texts: Eisner, Marc Allen. 2000. Regulatory Politics in
Transition. 2nd ed.
Kerwin, Cornelius M. 2003.
Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy. 3rd ed.
Rosenbaum, Walter A. 2008. Environmental
Politics and Policy. 7th ed.
Class meeting times: MWF 11:00 -11:50 am, Br. 370.
Instructor's Office Hours: MW from 1:30 to 2:45 pm, T TH from 9 to 11 am.
Description: This course is designed so that the students and
instructor can work together towards the goal of understanding how federal
bureaucracies determine the actual content of regulatory policy in
Grading: The final grade will be based on the following:
1) 3 take home projects, each worth 30% of the final grade.
2) Class participation - 10%
The final letter grade will be assigned according to the following scale:
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A 90-100% |
D 60-69% |
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B 80-89% |
F below 60% |
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C 70-79% |
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Class policies: All students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the reading material assigned for that day. Even if you have not read the material for a given day, you may be able to contribute to the discussion if you are not too far behind your classmates. I will be introducing new concepts and jargon during the course of the semester. Stop me at any time if you do not understand! Questions fuel discussion. Please force me to explain words and concepts in ways that you understand.
I will use power point to create outlines of the lectures for Mondays and Wednesdays. These will be posted in the digital drop box in Blackboard, usually the week before the lectures are to be delivered.
All students are expected to have knowledge of current affairs in American politics. I expect that you will read a newspaper, or have some other source of news that you consult every day. On Fridays, we will devote most of our time to discussion of current regulatory issues. The discussions will be pretty one sided if none of you have any additional knowledge to contribute.
Because class participation is an element of the grade, I will take note of class attendance. While perfect attendance is not required, one can't earn class participation points if one is not in class. Fridays are especially important for you to attend because that is normally a discussion day.
The due dates for your essay assignments are firm, but are subject to change if the needs of the class so indicate. Any changes will be made by the instructor in consultation with the class. Individual variations in the due dates will be made only in situations of well documented emergency, or where, based on sound reasons, prior arrangements with the instructor have been made. Requests made after the fact will not be well received.
Week I (W, 1-23) Housekeeping chores and Introduction
Week II (M, 1-28) Beginnings: The Market Regime
Eisner, Chs. 1, 2 & 3
Week III (M 2-4) The Associational
Regime
Eisner, Chs. 4 & 5
Week IV (M 2-11) The Societal Regime
Eisner, Chs. 6 & 7
Week V (M, 2-18) The Efficiency Regime
Eisner, Chs. 8 & 9
Week VI (M, 2-25) How Regulation is Accomplished -- Rulemaking
Kerwin, Chs. 1, 2 , First
Essay Due in class on Friday, 2-29
Week VII (M, 3-3) Management
of Rulemaking
Kerwin, Chs. 3 & 4
Week VIII (M, 3-10) Participation
in
Kerwin
Spring Break
Week IX (M, 3-24) Oversight and Accountability
Week X (M, 3-31) Prospects for Reform of Rulemaking,
Week XI (M, 4-7) Introduction to Environmental Policy,
Rosenbaum, Chs. 1, 2 & 3, Second Essay Due on
4-11
Week XII (M, 4-14) Risk, Costs and Benefits.
Rosenbaum, Chs. 4 & 5
Week XIII (M, 4-21) Case studies.
Rosenbaum, Chs. 6 & 7
Week XIV (M, 4-28) Case Studies,
Rosenbaum, Chs. 8 & 9
Week XV (M, 5-5) Global Environmentalism
Third Essay Due
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First Essay Due on 2-29 |
Rewrites of First Essay due on 3-14 |
Second Essay due on 4-11 |
Third Essay Due on 5-5 |
You are expected to complete three reflection essay assignments during the course of the semester. The due dates correspond to the divisions of the course -- at the end of our consideration of each of the three texts. Each essay must be printed on a word processor and should be 5 to 8 pages in length. You will likely need to access outside resources in order to complete the assignments. Use APSA style ( a copy of the APSA Style Manual can be found in the Political Science Resource Room, Br 490) and include a formal bibliography.
Scholars in this area communicate with each other though journal articles in scholarly journals and law reviews, articles in specialized professional association newsletters, as well as through books. While all types of sources are valid, I expect that you will make every effort to obtain information from primary sources where possible and that more than a token effort to find information will be made. Perhaps most significantly, the World Wide Web contains an immense amount of information on topics relevant to this course. Virtually all federal regulatory agencies have a web site. Additionally, many interest groups that participate in the rulemaking process have web sites. Of course, the flaw in the Web is that no one, except the sender and receiver of messages, exercises any control over its content. You have to sort out what is true and what is false, what is useful and what is junk, what is analysis and what is personal opinion. Contrast this with scholarly journals, such as Public Administration Review or Administrative Law Review, which employ either a blind review process or a strict editorial board to control the quality of the articles contained therein. The web is, in my judgment, most useful for finding primary documents from government agencies, news reports, and for finding information clearly intended to persuade the reader on a given issue. It is not a good place to go for scholarly analysis.
I will allow a rewrite of the first of these essays. The second and third essays will be final as turned in. Do your own work, but feel free to discuss the assignments with each other and with me. Be sure to ask me questions in class about the assignments so that we can discuss them as a group.
All three essays must be printed on a word processor. Length of the essays is largely irrelevant beyond a certain minimum, and the correlation between length and grades is not very strong. In fact, the total length of each essay should not exceed 1500 words, and 1000 words is better. These three essays make up the bulk of the grade. They are not long, but they must be well crafted and thought out. I expect a polished document. Typographical errors and errors of usage and grammar will result in deductions from the grade. I do this because, in the real world, such errors do reduce the value of your work. Edit your essays carefully.
The essays should be written in response to the following:
First Essay -- In twenty years, scholars following Eisner's scheme will likely have sufficient data to write about the first decade of the 21st century. Assume that you are one such scholar writing in 2028. Write an essay in which you set out the main regulatory initiatives from 2008 to 2018 (use your knowledge of current events to invent at least three). What are the origins of each? How well will Eisner's analytical scheme apply from 2008 to 2028?
Second Essay -- Assume that Barack Obama wins the Presidency in 2008 and that the Democrats maintain their hold on Congress. Assume also that you work for his vice President (you can choose whom you think Obama will select) and that you are given the task of creating an executive order to replace E. O. 12,866. What sorts of reforms of the way in which the rulemaking process is carried out do you see as consistent with the Obama message? Write a memo setting out the main changes in presidential oversight of the rule making process that you are recommending.
Third Essay – Assume that John McCain wins the presidency in 2008 with Elizabeth Dole as his running mate. The Democrats retain a slim majority in Congress. Despite his best efforts to manage the economy and placate OPEC, oil is now $150 a barrel and gasoline is $6 a gallon. The economy is in a tailspin. Your job is to create a long term plan for energy independence that also provides for environmental protection. Write a memo to the President explaining the problems with achieving both goals, and containing at least three big ideas to change the structure of our economy that will be: 1) effective in reducing our energy usage; 2) effective in protecting the environment; and, 3) acceptable to the Republican Party.
Any instance of academic dishonesty, e.g., cheating on exams or plagiarism of term papers, will be dealt with as severely as university rules allow.
Any attempt to secure the exclusive use of library resources, i.e., hiding or removing from the library any books or journals, or intentional destruction of library materials, i.e., cutting out articles, will be punished severely. You will receive zero credit for sources obtained through such methods, and the matter will be reported to the library and to the Executive Director of Housing, Residential Life and Student Judicial System. You will be held liable for repair or replacement of the materials.
You are expected to do your own work on all assignments in this class. Plagiarism will be punished as severely as university rules allow, i.e., a zero for the paper will be awarded and the matter will be reported to the Chair of Political Science and the Executive Director of Housing, Residential Life and Student Judicial System. Plagiarism, according to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged edition), means "appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas and thoughts of another author, and representation of them as one's own work." Any of the following examples of academic dishonesty constitutes plagiarism:
1. Directly copying a phrase, sentence, passage or paragraph from another author and presenting it as one's own (i.e., without proper quotation marks and full citation. You are assumed to know how to properly use quotation marks and citations).
2. Paraphrasing a sentence, passage or paragraph from another author without so indicating by proper citation to authority. When in doubt, cite!
3. Knowingly presenting, as one's own, a thought, idea, analytical framework, or theory advanced by another author. Turning in a term paper you did not write, e.g., one you bought or copied, is plagiarism. I am well aware that there are Web sites with papers that you can download. I am also well aware of the common practice of cutting and pasting material from the web without appropriate citation. Don't do these things. I will catch you!