This course introduces students to the legislative branch of American government. We will discuss the nature of representation, campaign strategies, redistricting, casework and constituent relations, the committee system, the tactics of floor debate, advocacy and lobbying, the role of legislative parties and leaders, and inter-chamber and inter-branch relations. We will examine the impact of institutional and electoral rules on legislative behavior and outcomes and the evolution of the modern Congress in the context of shifting structural arrangements. Students will participate in a simulation of the legislative process in which they author bills, work in committees and party caucuses, and participate in floor debate. Special attention will be paid to the elections that shape the composition of legislatures and to the interactions among elections, institutional arrangements, and policymaking. The contrast between the legislative outcomes of unified party control in New York vs. divided government in Washington will be a running theme of the course. The electoral context, then, sets the stage for our study of legislatures.