American Political Institutions
MIT | 17.202 | Spring 2025 | Thu 9–11 | E53-485
Last updated: February 24, 2026
Overview
This is the PhD program’s field seminar on American political institutions. Substantively, it covers various structural aspects of the American state—Congress, federalism, and so on—as well as “endogenous” institutions such as political parties and public policies. Unlike its counterpart on American political behavior (17.200), this course focuses mainly on politicians and other political elites rather than the mass public, though of course the mass–elite distinction is not always clear or useful. Like 17.200, however, this course is intended to give you a broad overview of its subject, as preparation for the American Politics field exam and for more specialized and research-oriented courses (e.g., 17.270, 17.212, or 17.150). As such, the readings lean towards enduring classics rather than cutting-edge research, and the assignments emphasize mastery of the material rather than the production of new research.
General information
| Instructor | Office | Office hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devin Caughey | caughey@mit.edu | E53-463 | Wed 1:30–2:30; Thu 11:00–12:00 |
Resources
All resources required for this course are available on its Canvas site: https://canvas.mit.edu/courses/36205. The latest version of this syllabus can be found on the Syllabus page. PDFs of the readings assigned for each session can be found under the corresponding section of the Modules page. The Assignments page includes links to each assignment.
Assignments
The ultimate purpose of a field seminar is to provide you with a broad knowledge base of the field so that you can (1) design and teach an introductory course in the subject and (2) conduct novel research of broad interest to others in the field. The more proximate purpose is to (3) help you pass general exams. If you and I do our jobs right, you will continue to draw on what you learn in this course for the rest of your career. The assignments are intended to help you achieve these goals.
Your course grade is based on three components:
- Participation (20%): You are expected to attend every class session and contribute thoughtfully and respectfully to the discussion. To prepare, you are expected to do all of the assigned reading before each session.
- Reading notes (4 \(\times\) 5% = 20%): Reading does not mean paying equal attention to every word in a text. It is much more important that you understand the text’s basic argument, the logic and evidence that undergird that argument, and how the text relates to other works that came before and after. Writing a brief summary notes is a great way to aid your understanding and retention of a text. I encourage you to do so with every text you read, but but you will be required to turn in your reading notes for four class sessions. Choose one session for each quarter of the term (as defined by the four exams). Upload the notes to Canvas before the correspoding class meeting. These may be informal (e.g., in bullet points) and will be graded only for completion. After the assignment deadline, they will be made visible to other students in the class.
- Exam questions (4 \(\times\) 15% = 60%): A four points over the course of the semester, I will post one or more simulated general exam questions. You will choose one question to answer with an essay of about 800–1,000 words (3–4 double-spaced pages). Your answer should be grounded in the texts assigned in this course (references to option or outside readings are not expected). A strong answer, however, will go beyond simple summaries of the readings and instead be organized around an argumentative thesis that answers the question. You must upload your response by 5pm on the day before class. In the next class meeting, will call on several students to defend their argument (à la the oral component of general exams).
Schedule
A detailed schedule is provided below, along with the readings and assignments for each class session. Please read the required texts in the order in which they are listed. Optional readings are for further/deeper exploration, perhaps in the future while studying for general exams. Full bibliographic references are provided at the end of the syllabus.
1. Feb. 5: Power and collective action
Topics
- pluralism
- the scope of conflict and second face of power
- collective-action problems
- varieties of incentives
- policy stakes and political mobilization
Required readings
- Dahl (1961), 1–8 (chap. 1), 85–86 (chap. 7), 89–103 (chap. 8), 163–166 (chap. 12), 184–189 (chap. 15), 223–228 (chap. 19), and 270–325 (chap. 24–28)
- Schattschneider (1960), 1–46 (chap. 1–2)
- Olson (1965), 6–22 and 33–52 (nontechnical parts of chap. 1)
- Wilson ([1974] 1995), 33–55 (chap. 3) and 327–346 (chap. 16)
Total: 223 pages
Optional readings
2. Feb. 12: The new institutionalisms
Topics
- the state
- the new institutionalisms
- commitment problems
- collective dilemmas
- coercion and cooperation
- ideas and institutions
- institutional persistence and change
Required readings
- Skocpol (1985)
- North and Weingast (1989)
- P. A. Hall and Taylor (1996)
- Diermeier and Krehbiel (2003)
- Moe (2005)
- Sheingate (2014)
Total: 145 pages
Optional readings
3. Feb. 19: The Constitution and the state
Topics
- coordination problems
- modernization
- the administrative state
- the submerged state
- the carceral state
Required readings
- Huntington (1966)
- Skowronek (1982), 1–84 and 165–211
- Mettler (2011), 18–56 (chap. 1–2)
- Soss and Weaver (2017)
Total: 234 pages
Optional readings
4. Feb. 26: Political parties and electoral institutions
Exam #1 due the week following this class
Topics
- parties as endogenous institutions
- parties as coalitions of policy demanders
- electoral institutions
- politics without parties
- political geography
Required readings
- Aldrich (2011), 3–66 (chap. 1–2)
- Bawn et al. (2012)
- Grossmann and Hopkins (2015)
- Schaffner, Streb, and Wright (2001)
- Schlozman and Rosenfeld (2019)
- Rodden (2019), 1–14 (introduction), 15–38 (chap. 1), and 165–196 (chap. 6)
Total: 239 pages
Optional readings
5. Mar. 5: Congress I: Members as individuals
Topics
- the member–constituent relationship
- the reelection motive
- spatial models of congressional voting
- the allocation of members’ time and attention
Required readings
- R. F. Fenno Jr. (1977)
- Jacobson (2016)
- Sinclair (2017)
- Poole and Rosenthal (2007), 1–31 (chap. 1–2) and 78–113 (chap. 4)
- Snyder and Ting (2003)
- R. L. Hall and Deardorff (2006)
Total: 200 pages
Optional readings
6. Mar. 12: Congress II: Rules and organization
Topics
- institutionalization of Congress
- endogenous rules
- informal vs. formal modes of governance
- rational-choice models of congressional organization
- inter- and intra-party conflict
Required readings
- Polsby (1968)
- Wawro and Schickler (2006), 1–60 (chap. 1–2) and 259–284 (chap. 11)
- Shepsle and Weingast (1994)
- Aldrich and Rohde (2017)
- Bloch Rubin (2021)
Total: 200 pages
Optional readings
7. Mar. 19: Congress III: Lawmaking
Exam #2 due the week following this class
Topics
- congressional action in the shadow of electoral accountability
- spatial models of lawmaking
- (dys)functionality of the modern Congress
Required readings
Total: 231 pages
Optional readings
Mar. 26: NO CLASS (Spring Break)
8. Apr. 2: The Presidency
Topics
- the modern presidency and power to persuade
- the president and mass media
- presidents and political time
- bargaining games
- signaling games
- veto bargaining
- unilateral action
Required readings
- James (2005)
- Skowronek (2006)
- Dearborn (2021), ix–xii (preface), 1–48 (chap. 1–2 and introduction to Part I), and 151–160 (introduction to Part II)
- Canes-Wrone (2006), 19–49 (chap. 2)
- C. Cameron and Gibson (2020)
- Lowande and Rogowski (2021)
Total: 217 pages
Optional readings
- Lewis (2008), 1–79 (chap. 1–3)
- Taylor et al. (2014), 227–281 (chap. 8)
- Neustadt ([1960] 1990)
- Baum and Kernell (1999)
- Moe and Howell (1999)
- Howell (2003)
- Kriner and Reeves (2015)
- Lieberman et al. (2019)
- Groseclose and McCarty (2001)
- C. M. Cameron (2000), 1–32 (chap. 1), 83–122 (chap. 4), and 178–202 (chap. 7)
- C. Cameron and McCarty (2004)
9. Apr. 9: The Bureaucracy
Topics
- motivations and behavior of bureaucrats
- agency rule-making
- the politics of bureaucratic policymaking
- lobbying the bureaucracy
Required readings
Total: 231 pages
Optional readings
- Lipsky ([1980] 2010)
- D. Carpenter (2014), 1–70 (chap. 1–2)
- Bawn (1995)
- Moffitt (2010)
- Lawson (2024)
10. Apr. 16: Controlling the State
Exam #3 due the week following this class
Topics
- delegation and agency problems
- the politics of bureaucatic structure
- partisan and interbranch conflict
- bureaucratic reputations and autonomy
- dismantely the “deep state”
Required readings
- McCubbins, Noll, and Weingast (1987)
- Gailmard and Patty (2013), 25–43 (nontechnical sections of chap. 2)
- D. P. Carpenter (2001), 1–36 (introduction and chap. 1)
- Moe and Howell (2025), 1–22 (introduction), 46–78 (chap. 2), and 111–209 (chap. 4–5)
Total: 244 pages
Optional readings
11. Apr. 23: The Judiciary
Topics
- constitutions and constitutional interpretation
- judicial decisionmaking
- judicial policymaking
Required readings
- Whittington (2005)
- Epstein and Knight (1998), 1–21 (chap. 1)
- Gillman (2001)
- C. M. Cameron and Kastellec (2023), 3–37 (chap. 1), 62–106 (chap. 3–4), and 209–236 (chap. 9).
- Kagan (2019), 3–40 (chap. 1–2)
Total: 221 pages
Optional readings
12. Apr. 30: State, local, and intergovernmental politics
Topics
- evolution of the federal system
- intergovernmenal competition
- local public goods and racial inequality
- participatory institutions and land use
- policy representation
- democratic backsliding
Required readings
- Derthick (2001)
- Peterson (1981), 3–38 (chap. 1–2)
- Trounstine (2020)
- Anzia (2022), 1–54 (chap. 1–2)
- Caughey and Warshaw (2022), 1–9 (chap. 1), 63–77 (chap. 5), and 113–129 (chap. 8)
- Grumbach (2022), 1–33 (chap. 1–2) and 151–194 (chap. 7–8)
Total: 234 pages
Optional readings
13. May. 7: Policy and political economy
Exam #4 due the week following this class
Topics
- policy agendas
- “streams” of problems, solutions, and politics
- punctuated equilibrium
- policy feedbacks, negative and positive
- American political economy
Required readings
- Kingdon ([1984] 2011), 196–208 (chap. 9)
- Baumgartner and Jones (1991)
- Pierson (1993)
- Thurston (2015)
- Wlezien (2017)
- Thelen (2019)
Total: 131 pages
Optional readings
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