GOVT 710-001 Seminar in American Politics: Proseminar Thursday 2:10-4:50pm

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).

John Aldrich, Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America (University of Chicago Press 1995).

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).

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 18 . A literature review is due on October 23 . Students have the option of submitting a rough draft for comments by Friday, November 22 . The final paper is due on December 4. Students will give a short, informal presentation on the same day 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 16 . The university schedules the final exam on December 11 at 2:10.

Please note that the professor reserves the right to alter the syllabus and the requirements as necessary.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

August 28: Introduction

September 4: 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 11: Partisanship and Public Opinion

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.

Larry M. Bartels, "Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952-1996," American Journal of Political Science (January 2000): 35-50. JSTOR.

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 18: Participation

Paper Topic and Bibliography Due

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. Peterson (Princeton University Press 1995), pp. 245-61.

Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Harvard University Press), Introduction and Chapters 9-14 (pp. 1-34, 269-415). Chapters 7-8 and 15-16 are recommended.

September 25: Political Parties

John Aldrich, Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America (University of Chicago Press 1995), especially Chapters 1-2, 6-9.

Leon Epstein, Political Parties in the American Mold (University of Wisconsin Press 1990), Chapters 2, 6 (pp. 9-39, 155-99). E-Reserves.

Supplemental Reading:

David K. Ryden, "‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’: The Judicial Shaping of Party Activities." In John C. Green and Daniel M. Shea, eds., The State of the Parties: The Changing Role of Contemporary American Parties (Rowman and Littlefield 1999), pp. 50-65.

Steven J. Rosenstone, Roy L. Behr, and Edward H. Lazarus, Third Parties in America , Second edition, revised and expanded (Princeton University Press 1996), Chapters 1-2, 5- 6, 9 (pp. 3-47, 125-88, 231-73).

October 2: Realignment

No Class, Professor in Africa—make up class will be scheduled

James L. Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (The Brookings Institution 1983), Chapters 2-5, 10, 13, 18 (pp. 19-105, 198-239, 298-321). E-Reserves.

Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson, Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics (Princeton University Press 1989), Chapters 1-2 (pp. 3-58). E-Reserves.

David Lublin, The Republican South (Princeton University Press 2004), Chapters 1-4, 6 (pp. 1-133, 172-216).

Martin P. Wattenberg, The Rise of Candidate-Centered Politics: Presidential Elections in the 1980s (Harvard University Press 1991), Chapter 2 (pp. 31-46). E-Reserves.

Larry M. Bartels, "Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952-1996," American Journal of Political Science (January 2000): 35-50. (Reread this piece.) JSTOR.

Supplemental Reading:

Kevin P. Phillips, The Emerging Republican Majority (Arlington House 1969).

James M. Glaser, Race, Campaign Politics and the Realignment in the South (Yale University Press 1996), Chapters 1-6 (pp. 1-196).

October 9: No Class, Professor in Africa

October 16: Midterm Exam

October 23: Congressional Elections

Literature Review Due

Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections , 7th edition, Chapters 3, 5-6 (pp. 27-61, 113-230).

David Lublin, “Quality, Not Quantity: Strategic Politicians in U.S. Senate Elections, 1952-1990,” Journal of Politics 56: 1(February 1994): 228-41. JSTOR.

Andrew Gelman and Gary King, "Estimating Incumbency Advantage without Bias," American Journal of Poltical Science 34 (November 1990): 1142-64. JSTOR.

Gary W. Cox and Jonathan N. Katz, "Why Did the Incumbency Advantage in U.S. House Elections Grow?" American Journal of Political Science 40 (May 1996): 478-97. JSTOR.

Stephen Ansolabehere et al, "Does Attack Advertising Demobilize the Electorate?" American Political Science Review 88 (December 1994): 829-38. JSTOR.

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, "A Dynamic Analysis of the Role of War Chests in Campaign Strategy," American Journal of Political Science 40 (May 1996): 352-71. JSTOR.

David Epstein and Peter Zemsky, "Money Talks: Deterring Quality Challengers in Congressional Elections," American Political Science Review 89 (June 1995): 295-308. JSTOR.

Supplemental Reading:

Richard F. Fenno Jr., Home Style: House Members in Their Districts (Little, Brown and Company 1978).

Gary C. Jacobson, Money in Congressional Elections (Yale University Press 1980).

October 30: Congress

David R. Mayhew, Congress: The Electoral Connection (Yale University Press 1974), complete book, especially Introduction and Part I (pp. 1-180).

Richard Fenno, “U.S. House Members in their Constituencies: An Exploration,” American Political Science Review 71: 3(September 1977): 883-917. JSTOR.

John W. Kingdon, Congressmen’s Voting Decisions , Third Edition (University of Michigan Press 1989), Chapter 1 (pp. 3-27). E-Reserves.

Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections , 7th edition, Chapter 7 (pp. 231-70).

Supplemental Reading:

Richard F. Fenno, Jr., Congressmen in Committees (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company 1973; reissued by Institute of Governmental Studies Press), Introduction and Chapters 1- 4 (pp. xiii-xvii, 1-138).

November 6: Interest Groups

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (HarperCollins 1957), portions of Chapters 1-4, 7 (pp. 3-8, 11-14, 21-31, 36-47, 96-103). E-Reserves.

Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Harvard University Press 1990), Introduction and Chapters 1A-1C, part of 1D, 1E-F, 6 (pp. 1-22, 33-52, 132-67). E-Reserves

Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory (Yale University Press 1996), Chapters 1-3 (pp. 1-46). E-Reserves.

Lawrence S. Rothenberg, "Organizational Maintenance and the Retention Decision in Groups," American Political Science Review 82 (December 1988): 1129-52. JSTOR.

Terry M. Moe, "Toward a Broader View of Interest Groups." Journal of Politics 43 (May, 1981): 531-543. JSTOR.

Terry M. Moe, "Control and Feedback in Economic Regulation: The Case of the NLRB," American Political Science Review 79 (December 1985): 1094-1116. JSTOR.

Jack L. Walker, “The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America,” American Political Science Review 77: 2(June 1983): 390-406. JSTOR.

Kay Lehman Schlozman, “What Accent the Heavenly Chorus? Political Equality and the American Pressure System,” Journal of Politics 46: 4(November 1984): 1006-32. JSTOR.

Supplemental Reading:

Morris P. Fiorina, Retrospective Voting in American National Elections (Yale University Press 1981), Chapters 1-2 (pp. 3-43).

Frank R. Baumgartner and Beth L. Leach, Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and Political Science , Chapters 2-6 (pp. 22-119).

Terry M. Moe, "A Calculus of Group Membership," American Journal of Political Science 24 (November 1980): 593-632.

November 13: Presidency and Judiciary

Samuel Kernell, Going Public , Fourth Edition, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 1-73). E-Reserves.

Aaron Wildavsky, "The Two Presidencies." In Aaron Wildavsky, Perspectives on the Presidency (pp. 448-61). E-Reserves.

Donald A. Peppers, "'The Two Presidencies': Eight Years Later." In Aaron Wildavsky, Perspectives on the Presidency (pp. 462-71). E-Reserves.

Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan (Free Press 1990), Chapters 1-6 (pp. 3-127). Earlier editions of Presidential Power will contain this material as well so the use of this edition is not critical.

Donald R. Songer and Stefanie A. Lindquist, "Not the Whole Story: The Impact of Justices' Values on Supreme Court Decision Making," American Journal of Political Science 40 (1996): 1049-63. JSTOR.

Donald R. Songer, Jeffrey A. Segal, and Charles M. Cameron, "The Hierarchy of Justice: Testing a Principal-Agent Model of Supreme Court-Circuit Court Interactions," American Journal of Political Science 38 (1994): 673-96. JSTOR.

Supplemental Reading:

Jeffrey A. Segal and Harold J. Spaeth, The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lawrence Baum, The Puzzle of Judicial Behavior (University of Michigan Press 1997). Karen O'Connor, Women's Organizations' Use of the Courts. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books.

November 20: Race and Gender in Politics

Frank R. Parker, Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi after 1965 (University of North Carolina Press 1990), Chapter 2 (pp. 34-77). Chapters 3-6 (pp. 78- 197) are also recommended. E-Reserves.

David Lublin, “Race, Representation, and Redistricting” in Paul E. Peterson, ed., Classifying by Race (Princeton University Press 1995): 111-28. E-Reserves.

Nayda Terkildsen, "When White Voters Evaluate Black Candidates: The Processing Implications of Candidate Skin Color, Prejudice, and Self-Monitoring," American Journal of Political Science 37(November 1993): 1032-53. JSTOR.

Barbara C. Burrell, A Woman's Place is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era (University of Michigan Press 1996), Chapters 7-8 (pp. 131-82). E- Reserves.

David Lublin and Sarah Brewer, “The Continuing Dominance of Traditional Gender Roles in Southern Elections,” Social Science Quarterly 84: 2(June 2003): 379-96. E- Reserves.

Leonie Huddy and Nayda Terkilsen, "Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates," American Journal of Political Science 37(February 1993): 119-47. JSTOR.

Supplemental Reading:

Carol M. Swain, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress (Harvard University Press 1995).

David Lublin, The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress (Princeton University Press 1997).

Keith Reeves, Voting Hopes or Fears? White Voters, Black Candidates, and Racial Politics in America (Oxford University Press 1997), Chapters 1-6 (pp. 13-111).

Katherine Tate, Black Faces in the Mirror: African Americans and Their Representatives in the U.S. Congress (Princeton University Press 2003).

David T. Canon, Race, Redistricting and Representation: The Unintended Consequences of Black Majority Districts (University of Chicago Press 1999).

November 22: Optional Rough Draft Due

November 27: No Class, Thanksgiving

December 4: Electoral College and Election Reform

Final Draft Due and Research Presentation

Lawrence Longley and Neil R. Peirce, The Electoral College Primer (Yale University Press 1999 or earlier edition), Chapters 2, 4 (pp. 17-38, 96-133). E-Reserves.

Henry E. Brady , Michael C. Herron, Walter R. Mebane Jr., Jasjeet S. Sekhon, Kenneth W. Shotts, and Jonathan N. Wand, “Law and Data: The Butterfly Ballot Episode,” PS: Political Science and Politics 34: 1(March 2001): 59-69. JSTOR.

Stephen Ansolabehere and Charles Stewart III, “Residual Votes Attributable to Technology,” Journal of Politics 67: 2(May 2005). E-Reserves.

December 11: Final Exam Date