POLS 5015 - Constitutional Politics

The United States Constitution confers authority on the various branches of government in order to empower the federal government. At the same time, the Constitution is designed to restrain public officials in their exercise of institutional power to prevent abuse of government power. In Madisonian theory, the separation of powers system works when one branch challenges another in its exercise of power. Those who challenge another may be motivated by politics or partisanship, but they couch their challenge in constitutional language. Hence ‘constitutional politics’ serves as conflict that is healthy for the American constitutional order. The system is in trouble when public officials fail to engage in conflict; if one branch asserts excessive power and another branch does not challenge it, then the system runs into the danger of tyranny, which James Madison defined as the accumulation of powers in one branch. Course examines historic and recent constitutional issues to assess whether each branch has lived up to its responsibility of checking the others. If any branch has been remiss, we will explore why.

Requisites:
Credit Hours: 4
Repeat/Retake Information: May not be retaken.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Eligible Grades: A-F,PR,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I