Political Science 190.632
Development of American Political Institutions
Final Exam
May 3, 2005
Due: May 4 by 5pm.
Instructions: Answer TWO of the following questions. Please submit TWO COPIES of
your completed exam by 5pm on May 4th. You may submit your exam either as hard
copy or by email to jcooper@jhu.edu and adam.sheingate@jhu.edu.
Questions:
1. Compare and contrast the Republican Congresses since 1995 with the Democratic
“Textbook Congresses” of the 1950’s. What were the salient features of the House and
Senate in the Textbook era? What are the salient features of the modern House and Senate?
How and why did we transit from the House and Senate of the 1950’s to the current
House and Senate? What are the consequences for legislative performance and
presidential power?
2. Compare and contrast the institutional development of the House and Senate between
the end of the Civil War and the end of World War I. What were the salient developments
in each body? How would you explain the differences and similarities in development?
What were the broad consequences for the role of Congress in the political system?
3. Critically compare and contrast the views of Jeffrey Tulis, Stephen Skowronek, and
Andrew Rudalevige on the development of presidential power in the American political
system. What elements of each writer’s analysis, if any, contribute to our understanding of
the modern presidency?
4. Trace the changing relations between the President and the bureaucracy in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What key changes occurred and what explains
them? By 1920, in what major ways did change in the scope and power of the
bureaucracy alter the character of both presidential and bureaucratic politics?