Toward an American political institutions reading list (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Sunday, 12 April 2009

Toward an American political institutions reading list

Here’s what I’ve got for my fall graduate seminar thus far:

Shepsle and Boncheck, Analyzing Politics.
Buchanan and Tullock, The Calculus of Consent.
Farrell, Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction.
Krehbiel, Information and Legislative Organization.
Aldrich, Why Parties?: The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America.

Obviously that doesn’t include articles yet, but I don’t need to figure those out until August or so. Obviously I'm trying to bring in a lot of rational choice here, since our undergraduates really don't get any of that as far as I know; I figure I can get away without Arrow and Downs since Shelpsle and Boncheck cover that territory, but I want something on election systems and I’ve used Farrell before and am happy with his treatment. So, any suggestions?

2 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.

1. prison rodeo wrote @ Mon, 13 Apr 2009, 9:16 am CDT:

Sigh. You’re missing a branch.

Baum’s Puzzle of Judicial Behavior would be a nice add.

2. Chris Lawrence wrote @ Mon, 13 Apr 2009, 3:06 pm CDT:

Yeah, I know I’m short judicial on the books front, but wasn’t sure if there was anything good in book-length form. I thought about Segal and Spaeth.

I’m also missing the presidency (at least in book form), if that’s any consolation.

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