Teaching the Congress and Legislative Process Courses

At the APSA Convention in New York in 1981, the Presidency Research Group ran a very successful panel on “Teaching the American Presidency.” Those in attendance all were convinced that they gained useful insights into their own teaching by sharing experiences with others. In hopes of achieving the same goal, the Legislative Studies Group organized a similar panel of the 1982 meeting. This brief article served as background for the panel.Our panel is “similar,” not “parallel.“ Those in the Presidency Research Group nearly all teach courses on the American Presidency, not on chief executives. The teaching and research interests of our group are more diverse. Some of us concentrate on the United States Congress, others on the Congress and the various state legislatures, still others on the Congress and the various state legislatures, still others on comparative legislatures. The discussants on our panel were all authors of leading texts on the Congress; however, because of the interests of members of the group, this article discusses comparative legislature courses as well.