GOVT 710-001 Seminar in American Politics: Proseminar Monday 11:20-2:00Pm
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GOVT 710-001 Seminar in American Politics: Proseminar Monday 11:20-2:00pm This doctoral level survey course in American politics touches upon some of the fundamental questions and theories that inform and guide the scholarship of political scientists in this field. Classics as well as more contemporary research will be examined. Because of sheer volume of scholarship on American politics, this course is limited to providing only a broad overview of the field. Major goals for the course include teaching you the basic of how to assess and write journal articles like a political scientist. Required Texts and Communication Raymond E. Wolfinger and Steven J. Rosenstone, Who Votes? (Yale University Press 1980). Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America , 14 th ed. (Longman 2011). David Lublin, The Republican South (Princeton University Press 2004). Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections , 7th edition (Pearson 2009). David R. Mayhew, Congress: The Electoral Connection (Yale University Press 1974). Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan (Free Press 1990). Morris Fiorina, Culture Wars: The Myth of a Polarized America (Longman 2005). All of the above books will be available at the university bookstore. I also encourage you to check sources for used books like bookfinder.com and amazon.com. However, make sure you get the correct edition of the book, though earlier editions will likely suffice for the Neustadt book. The required reading includes numerous other journal articles and book chapters. All materials not in the above books can be found online through e-reserves for our course on Blackboard. Students can log on to Blackboard by going to american.edu/blackboard and logging in using their AU email id and password. Many of the readings can also be accessed directly through JSTOR as well as e-reserves and are labeled accordingly. Communication: Students need to make sure that they read their AU email or that it is forwarded to another email account so that the professor and other students can easily contact you via the Blackboard communication links. Course Requirements Participation. Each student is responsible for coming to class each week with all the reading completed. Active and thoughtful participation in discussion is required. Regular attendance and participation are the critical components for your participation grade. Each week, students should come prepared to answer the following questions about the readings: • What are the major themes of the readings? • What criticisms do you have of the arguments made in the readings? • What do the readings contribute to a broader understanding of politics? • What questions do you have about the readings? Weekly Memos. Students in the class will divide up the readings among themselves and write memos of approximately one page in length (single-spaced text) for each week of the course on their assigned portion of the readings. The memos can be done in outline form or in prose but should explain briefly: (1) the question posed by the author, (2) the methods used to answer the question, (3) the theory developed by the author, and (4) the major points and conclusions of the piece. The memos are due in class; please make enough copies for your classmates. These memos will serve a double purpose. First, they will assure that you understand the reading well and force you to begin dissecting the reading in the manner of a political scientist. Second, the memos collectively will provide valuable study material in advance of your exams. Research Paper and Presentation. The major written assignment for the course is to write a paper that could conceivably be published as an article in an academic journal. Students should submit a paper topic and bibliography by September 20 . A literature review is due on October 18. Students have the option of submitting a rough draft for comments by Friday, November 19 . The final paper is due on November 29 . Students will give a short, informal presentation at some point towards the end of the semester on their work. Late papers will docked by 1/3 of a grade for each day late. The general format of the papers should follow that of a political science journal article. Such articles normally include an introductory section detailing where your research fills a void in the existing knowledge. In other words, the introduction should serve as your "hook" to explain to other scholars why they should care to read your paper (i.e. what the problem is as well as your unique insight on a solution to the problem). A literature review that highlights problems or gaps in past work on your topic should follow the introduction. The theory and research design section explains what hypotheses you plan to test in your study and how you plan to test them. (This section can be broken into two parts if necessary). Finally, you present your analysis followed by a discussion of the implications of the results. Different types of analyses may be conducted to fulfill this assignment. Some students may wish to conduct a quantitative data analysis of data gleaned, for example, from the National Election Study or state election returns. Other students may wish to conduct an in-depth case study (i.e. qualitative analysis). The key requirement of any research, however, is that the study provides a clear and appropriate test of an important research hypothesis. Exams. There will be a midterm exam on October 11 . The university schedules the final exam on December 6 at 11:20. Please note that the professor reserves the right to alter the syllabus and the requirements as necessary. READING ASSIGNMENTS August 23: Introduction August 30: Pluralism and Elite Theory John F. Manley, "Neo-Pluralism: A Class Analysis of Pluralism I and Pluralism II," American Political Science Review 77 (June 1983): 368-83. JSTOR. Charles E. Lindblom, "Comment on Manley," American Political Science Review 77 (June 1983): 384-6. JSTOR. Robert Dahl, "Comment on Manley," American Political Science Review 77 (June 1983): 386-9. JSTOR. C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (Oxford University Press 1956), Chapters 1, 12-13 (pp. 3-29, 269-324). E-Reserves. Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz, "Two Faces of Power," American Political Science Review 56 (December 1962), 947-52. JSTOR. Supplemental Reading: Steven P. Erie, Rainbow's End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840-1985 (University of California Press 1988), Chapters 1-4, 7 (pp. 1-140, 236-66). Recommended that you read Chapters 5-6 as well. Robert Dahl, Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City (Yale University Press 1961), Chapters 1, 4-7, 19 (pp. 2-8, 32-86, 223-8). E. E. Schattscheneider, The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1960). Murray Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (University of Illinois Press 1964). Floyd Hunter, Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers (University of North Carolina Press 1953). September 6: Labor Day, No Class September 13: Partisanship and Public Opinion Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America , 14 th ed. (Longman 2011), Chapter 6 (pp. 101-16). Philip E. Converse, “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics” in David E. Apter, ed., Ideology and Discontent (New York: Free Press 1964). E-Reserves. Angus Campbell, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, The American Voter (1960), Chapters 6-7 (pp. 120-67). E-Reserves. Norman H. Nie, Sidney Verba, and John R. Petrocik, The Changing American Voter (Harvard University Press 1976), Chapter 4 (pp. 47-73). E-Reserves. Michael S. Lewis-Beck, Helmut Norpoth, William G. Jacoby, and Herbert J. Weisberg, The American Voter Revisited (University of Michigan Press 2008), Chapters 6-7 (pp. 111-60). E-Reserves. Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope, Culture Wars: The Myth of a Polarized America (Longman 2005), whole book especially Chapters 2-3, 6-7. Alan Abramowitz and Kyle Saunders, “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? The Reality of a Polarized America,” The Forum 3: 2(2005). bepress.com or E-Reserves. September 20: Participation Paper Topic and Bibliography Due Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America , 14 th ed. (Longman 2011), part of Chapter 8 (pp, 147-57). Raymond E. Wolfinger and Steven J. Rosenstone, Who Votes? (Yale University Press 1980), all (pp. 1-130). Jonathan Nagler, "The Effect of Registration Laws and Education on U.S. Voter Turnout," American Political Science Review 85 (December 1991): 1394-1405. JSTOR. Henry E. Brady, Sidney Verba, and Kay Lehman Schlozman, "Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation," American Political Science Review 89 (June 1995): 271-94. JSTOR. Michael P. McDonald and Samuel Popkin, “The Myth of the Vanishing Voter,” American Political Science Review 95(December 2001): 963-74. JSTOR. Benjamin Highton, "Easy Registration and Voter Turnout," Journal of Politics (May 1997): 565-75. JSTOR. John Aldrich, “Rational Choice and Turnout,” American Journal of Political Science 37: 1(January 1993): 246-78. JSTOR. Robert D. Putnam, “Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America,” PS: Political Science and Politics 28: 4(December 1995): 664-83. JSTOR. Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (HarperCollins 1957), Chapter 14 (pp. 260-76). E-Reserves. Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory (Yale University Press 1996), Chapters 4 (pp. 47-71). E-Reserves. Supplemental Reading: Steven J. Rosenstone and John Mark Hansen, Mobilization, Participation and Democracy in America. Stephen Knack, "Does 'Motor Voter' Work? Evidence from State-Level Data," Journal of Politics 57 (August 1995): 796-811. David Lublin and Katherine Tate, "Racial Group Competition in Urban Elections," Chapter 10 in Classifying by Race , edited by Paul E.