Brandeis University
Spring 2015
POL 121
Martin A. Levin
PARTISANSHIP and POLICYMAKING : The Clinton, Bush, and Obama
Presidencies
Week 1 Prologue-- The Age of Reagan (And Bush #1) – 1980-1992: Tax Cuts, Deregulation,
Deficit Production
King, “The American Polity in the late 1970s: Building Coalitions in Sand”
Wilson, “Politics Then & Now”
Landy and Levin, “Preface” and "The New Politics of Public Policymaking" in
Landy & Levin, New Politics of Policymaking
James Q. Wilson, "New Politics, New Elites, Old Politics"; Schuck, “The
Politics of Rapid Legal Change: Immigration Policy in the 1980s”
Week 2 The Age of Perot: The Third Party Split in the 1992 Election Brings us the Age of
Clinton
Lubell, The Future of American Politics, “The Sun and Moon Theory of
American Political Parties”
Week 3 The Age of Clinton and The Age of Gingrich and the New Pattern of Frequent
Alternation in Closely Competitive Elections --1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2010.
Levin , Landy, and Shapiro, Seeking The Center--Mayhew , “Much Huffing and Puffing, Little
Change”; Levin and Landy , “Durability and Change"
Week 4 The Age of Moderate Innovations: Welfare Reform, Deficit Reduction, NAFTA and
The Age of Perot Redux—the 1996 Election and the Impeachment Blues Cured by a Coalition
with a Few Republicans
Teles, Whose Welfare: AFDC and Elite Politics, Chapters 1,3-5, 8-9
Teles and Prinz, “The Politics of Rights Retraction: Welfare Reform from Entitlement to Block
Grant” in Seeking the Center. ; Martin , Cathie Jo , “ Dead on Arrival: The New Politics of
Health Care Reform in the Clinton Administration “
Week 5 The Age of An Electoral Split Decision—the 2000 Election and More Third
Party Influence
Levin, Shapiro & Disalvo, Building Coalitions, Making Policy: The
Politics of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies, Introduction and
Chapter 1 (Levin, Emer, & DiSalvo)
Week 6 The Age of 9/11 and its Foreign and Domestic Effects : Iraq, Afghanistan , and the
Patriot Act followed by Social Security Privatization, An Underfunded Expansion of Drug
Coverage for Medicare , and Tax Cuts
Lindsay, “National Security, the Electoral Connection, and Policy Choice” in
Levin, Shapiro, & Disalvo
Week 7 The Age of Bush and the Stealth Politics of Indirection: A Domestic Version of the
Voodoo Dance of Weapons of Mass Destruction
2
Emer, “A Feint to the Center but Moving Backwards: Bush’s Clear Skies Environmental Policies
and Non-Policies” in Levin, Shapiro, and DiSalvo
Week 8 Policies to Serve the Business Providers to Government: Pillaging from the Right
After a Feint to the Center
Levin, Shapiro & Disalvo, Building Coalitions, Making Policy: The Politics of
the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies
Weaver, “The Privatization of Social Security;
Oberlander “Medicare
Prescription Drug Reform”; Tichenor, “Bush’s Immigration Reform Failure”;
Hess, “Compassionate Conservatism and No Child Left Behind”
Week 9
An Age of Frequent and Surprising Alternations in Power Redux --the 2002 and
2006 Elections
Wildavsky, “The Two Presidencies— Foreign and Domestic “
Week 10 The Age of Obama: Healthcare Reform, Dodd-Frank Financial Reform, and the Fiscal
Stimulus Package
Building Coalitions, Making Policy--- Oberlander, “Learning from the Clinton
Healthcare Reform Failure”; Tichenor, “Obama’s Immigration Reform Failure”
Week 11 And Again, An Age of More Frequent Alternations in Power: The 2010 Election
Brings Us the Republican Coalition Building Strategy –‘Just Say No’
Building Coalitions, Making Policy --Mayhew, “Politics, Elections and Policymaking”
Week 12 The Age of a Surprising 2010 Lame Duck Session: A New Republican Strategy –‘
Just Say Yes’ If It Involves Tax Cuts and Help for Business
Building Coalitions, Making Policy-- Levin, Emer and DiSalvo, “Some New Coalitional
Configurations and Policies: The Surprising 2010 Lame Duck Session”
Mayhew, “The End Note of Obama’s First Two Years: The 2010 Lame Duck
Session
Week 13 The Age of the Deficit Reduction Follies: ‘Just Say No’ Redux
“Does Obama Really Like this Job?”: Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Y
Week 14
LOOKING FORWARD AND BACK: OBAMA IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Keller, The Unbearable Heaviness of Governing: Obama in Historical Perspective, Intro,
Chapters 1, 3-5 .
“The Bipartisanship Fantasy Dream Machine: Obama wants to be President of a
Country that Doesn’t Exist”: Wolffe, R: Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama
White House.
“Obama and the Failure To Exert Power: Faubus and Netanyahu ; MacArthur
and McCrystal”: Neustadt, Presidential Power
Levin, “A Politics of Institutions” in Davis, The Post-Imperial Presidency