LAWS 658 - How Governing Institutions Fail and Succeed

This seminar prepares students for the work of designing, building, and working within complex institutions. Drawing on ideas from political science, law, history, economics (especially the economics of public choice), and social welfare, the seminar will focus on the often paradoxical and surprising reasons why institutions become co-opted, inefficient, unrepresentative, or otherwise fail to achieve their goals (and ways to avoid or prevent such failures). The course will examine institutions including legislatures, multi-member courts Like the Supreme Court), corporate boards, and administrative agencies. In considering case studies of possible institutional failure, the course will also examine how to design institutions to succeed.  Students will read and discuss both theoretical texts and primary documents, including legislation and judicial opinions.