17.251 | Fall 2016 | Undergraduate, Graduate

Congress and the American Political System I

Assignments & Exams

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1

Please do the following problems at the end of Stewart, Charles. Chapter 1 in Analyzing Congress (The New Institutionalism in American Politics). W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. ISBN: 978039393506.

  • Problems 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Problem Set 2

  1. Do the following problems from the end of Chapter 1 in Analyzing Congress.
    • Problems 7, 8, 10 and 11
  2. The following figure shows the ideal points of a three-person legislature that is deciding on spending levels along two dimensions, Guns and Butter. The status quo (ф) is also indicated.

Decisions are made using the following rules:

  • Motions are voted on one dimension at a time.
  • An agenda-setter makes a motion that is decided by the chamber on a take-it-or-leave-it basis (In other words, if the proposal is rejected by a majority vote, the game is over and the status quo prevails).
  • Decisions are made based on majority rule.

B1. Show the policy outcome if Member A is the agenda-setter on the Guns dimension and Member C is the agenda-setter on the Butter dimension.

B2. The answer for B1 will be a point in the policy space in the figure. Show the win set against the policy that results from answer B1.

A graph showing government spending along two dimensions, guns and butter.

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Fall 2016
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