This seminar will look at the American state legislature as a vehicle for
accomplishing two goals: First, we want to learn about the variety of
political institutions and power relationships that exist across the states,
and, second, we will use two distinct theoretical approaches, cultural
theory and rational choice theory, to help us understand the variety of
patterns of state politics.  Comparing what each of these  theoretical
approaches can tell us will increase our understanding of American state
politics, and in the process, it will strengthen our own analytic abilities
as we come to appreciate that what we find often depends to a great extent
on the perspective and assumptions we bring to our study.
The major focus will be on the state legislatures, but these institutions do
not exist in a vacuum. Hence, we will begin with a look at changes in
federalism and the extent of the national government's influence over the
states, and we will look at the governorship and at state-local
relationships within the states.
This course carries intensive writing credit so the quality of the writing
in the seminar papers will be an integral part of the course grade.  I have
tentatively planned four papers: (1) an in-depth book review of politics in
one of the states or a political (auto)biography of a state official; (2) a
comparative analysis of power relationships in two states or two chambers of
a state legislature; (3) an analysis of gubernatorial priorities and
successes in one of the states; (4) an essay comparing the cultural and
rational choice approaches to some aspect of state politics.