Thursdays, 3:30-6:10 PM
DU 464
Dr. Barbara Burrell
Main office: 164 Monat Building
753-9657
Office hours:
Wednesdays 1-4 PM
Rm 416, Zulauf
bburrell@niu.edu
This course is designed to introduce students to the field
of American politics. Emphasis is on major works in American politics. Some of
these readings are "classics" in the sense that they have structured
much of our theories and research in the past few decades. Others are more
recent leading works that have built on the earlier writings. The important
point is to become familiar with the works that have contributed greatly to how
we think about politics in America and the study of its politics and to develop
skills in critically evaluating these works and research methodologies and
approaches and to think about where we go from here in terms of research.
The primary aim of the seminar is to acquaint you with the
central questions, concepts and research approaches in the field and provide
you with tools to delve more deeply into political science and to look forward
to further research directions in American politics. We will focus on learning
how to evaluate critically research others have done, pointing out the
strengths and weaknesses in their logic, how they define their concepts,
develop empirical measures of them, and construct and implement research
designs to test relationships and interpret evidence. I hope you will find the study of American politics to be
challenging, that this course stimulates you to further exploration and
research in this area, and that you see the comparative relevance of the
concepts and studies that we examine.
Statement Concerning Students with Disabilities
Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, NIU is
committed to making reasonable accommodations for persons with documented
disabilities. Those students with disabilities that may have some impact on
their coursework and for which they may require accommodations should notify
the Center for Access-Ability Resources (CAAR) on the fourth floor of the
Health Services Building. CAAR will assist students in
making appropriate accommodations with course instructors. It is important that
CAAR and instructors be informed of disability-related needs during the first
two weeks of the semester.
The following books are available in the University
Bookstore.
Robert Dahl, Who governs?, 2nd edition
Morris Fiorina, Culture Wars?
David Mayhew, Congress: the Electoral Connection, 2nd
edition
Samuel Kernell, Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential
Leadership, 3rd edition
Jeffrey Berry, The New Liberalism
John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies,
2nd edition
Angus Campbell, Warren Miller, Philip Converse and Donald
Stokes, The American Voter
Matthew Streb, The New Electoral Politics of Race
Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern
Presidents
Jeffrey Segal and Harold Spaeth 1993, The Supreme Court and
the Attitudinal Model
Katherine Tate. 1993. From Protest to Politics: the New
Black Voters in American Elections
Copies of these books have also been put on Reserve in
Founders Library.
Some journal articles are available through JStor. If you are on campus you can go to
www.jstor.org to find them. If you are
off campus, connect to the university library site, click on articles, off
campus, type in your SS# under authorization, go to general databases and
scroll to Jstor. They are marked in the readings for each week.
Some of the journal articles and book chapters can be
obtained through Blackboard. I have enrolled this course in Blackboard. Go to
this course and you will find these articles in Course Documents. These
readings as marked as Blackboard in the syllabus.
August 25. Introduction
September 1.
Pluralism
Robert Dahl, Who Governs?, 2nd edition, skim Book I , Read
Books II-VI
Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz. 1962, "Two Faces
of Power," American Political Science Review: 947-52. (JStor)
Sidney Verba, 2003. “Would the Dream of Political Equality
Turn out to Be a Nightmare?” Perspective on Politics 1 (4) December: 663-679.
(Blackboard)
September 8. Voting Behavior
Angus Campbell, Philip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald
Stokes. 1966. The American Voter, New York: John Wiley, chaps 2, 6-9. (18-37, 120-265)
Walter Dean Burnham. 1965. "The Changing Shape of the
American Political Universe." American Political Science Review 59:
7-28. (JStor)
September 15. Public
Opinion and Ideology
Morris Fiorina with Samuel Abrams and Jeremy Pope, 2005.
Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. Pearson Longman.
Alan Abramowitz and Kyle Saunders. 2005. “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? The Reality of a
Polarized America,” The Forum Berkeley Electronic Press. (Blackboard)
Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro. 2001. “Rational
Public Opinion” in Controversies in Voting Behavior,” Ed. Richard Niemi and
Herbert Weisberg, Washington, D. C.: CQ Press.
164-179. (Blackboard)
September 22. Civic
Engagement and Political Participation
Robert Putnam. 1995. “Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange
Disappearance of Social Capital in America.” PS: Political Science and Politics
28: 664-83. (JStor)
Everett C. Ladd. 1996. “The Data Just Don’t Show Erosion of
America’s ‘Social Capital’” in The Public Perspective, June/July: 1- 22.
(Blackboard)
Theda Skocpol. 2004. “Voice and Inequality: The
Transformation of American Civic Democracy,” Perspectives on Politics 2. 1
(March): 3 -20. (Blackboard)
Morris Fiorina. 1999. “Extreme Voices: A Dark Side of Civic
Engagement.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, ed. Theda Skocpol and
Morris P. Fiorina. Washington: Brookings/Russell Sage Foundation: 395-427.
(Blackboard)
Benjamin Barber. 1998. “Neither Leaders nor Followers:
Citizenship under Strong Democracy,” Chap 7 in A Passion for Democracy
Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pp. 95-110. (Blackboard)
Lawrence Bobo and Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. 1990. “Race,
Sociopolitical Participation, and Black Empowerment.” American Political
Science Review 84: 377-94. (JStor)
September 29.
Political Parties
Schlesinger, Joseph A. 1985. “The New American Political
Party.” American Political Science Review, 79: 1152-1169. (JStor)
Paul Herrnson, 1986. “Do Parties Make a Difference? The Role
of Party Organizations in Congressional Elections.” Journal of Politics
48:589-615. (JStor)
Martin Wattenberg. 1999 “Negativity or Neutrality?” (Chapter
4) in The Decline of American Politics Parties, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press. 50-72. (Blackboard)
John J. Coleman. 2003. “Responsible, Functional, or Both?
American Political Parties and the APSA Report after Fifty Years.” In The State
of the Parties, 4th edition, eds. John C. Green and Rick Farmer, New York, NY:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 300-322 (Blackboard)
Peter Francia, Paul Herrnson, John Frendreis, and Alan
Gitelson. 2003. “The Battle for the Legislature: Party Campaigning in State
House and State Senate Elections.” In The State of the Parties, 4th edition,
eds. John C. Green and Rick Farmer, New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc., 171-189 (Blackboard)
October 6. Interest Groups
Berry, Jeffrey M. 1999. The New Liberalism: The Rising Power
of Citizen Groups. Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution Press.
*Salisbury, Robert. 1969. “An Exchange Theory of Interest
Groups.” American Journal of Political Science 13: 1-32. (JStor)
*Jack Walker. 1983. "The Origins and Maintenance of
Interest Groups in America," American Political Science Review 77:
90‑406 (JStor).
October 13.Legislators and Representation
Richard F. Fenno.1977. "U.S. House Members in Their
Constituencies: An Exploration." American Political Science Review 71:
883‑917. (JStor)
David Mayhew, 2004. The Electoral Connection, 2nd Edition.
Yale University Press
Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and
Women Represent Women? A Contingent
‘Yes.’” Journal of Politics 61 (1999(: 628-57. Jstor and Blackboard
October 20. The Presidency
Richard E. Neustadt.
Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents. (chps 1-5)
Samuel Kernell. 1997. Going Public: New Strategies of
Presidential Leadership. CQ Press, chaps 1-2.
Skowronek, Stephen. 1988. "Presidential Leadership in
Political Time. In The Presidency and the Political System, 2nd ed. E. Michael
Nelson, pp. 115-59, CQ Press. (Blackboard)
October 27. Congress and the Presidency as Institutions
Nelson W. Polsby. 1968. “The Institutionalization of the
House of Representatives.” American Political Science Review 62: 144-68.
(JStor)
Barbara Sinclair. 1992. “The Emergence of Strong Leadership
in the 1980s House of Representatives.” Journal of Politics 54: 657-84. (JStor)
Lyn Ragsdale and John J. Theis, III. 1997. “The
Institutionalization of the American Presidency, 1924-1992.” American Journal
of Political Science 41: 1280-1318. (JStor)
Lawrence Dodd. 2005. “Re-Envisioning Congress: Theoretical
Perspectives on Congressional Change—2004.” In Congress Reconsidered, 8th
edition, eds. Lawrence Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer, Washington, DC: CQ Press,
411-445. (Blackboard)
David Epstein and Sharyn O’Halloran. 2000. “The
Institutional Face of Presidential Power: Congressional Delegation of Authority
to the President.” In Presidential
Power, eds. Robert Y. Shapiro, Martha Joynt Kumar, Lawrence R. Jacobs, New
York: Columbia University Press, 311-338. (Blackboard)
November 3. Judicial Behavior
Robert A. Dahl. 1967. "The Supreme Court’s Role in
National Policy‑Making." In Pluralist Democracy in the United
States, Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 155-164. (Blackboard)
Jeffrey Segal and Harold Spaeth 1993, The Supreme Court and
the Attitudinal Model , 2,6,7,8.
Kevin T. McGuire and James A. Stimson. 2004. “The Least
Dangerous Branch Revisited: New Evidence of Supreme Court Responsiveness to
Public Preferences.” Journal of Politics 66, 4 (November): 1018-1035.
(Blackboard)
November 10. Policy
Agendas
John Kingdon. 1995/2003. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public
Policies, 2nd edition. Boston: Little Brown.
Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones. 1991. “Agenda Dynamics
and Policy Subsystems,” Journal of Politics, 53, 4: 1044-1074. (JStor)
November 17. Gender and Politics
Barbara Burrell. 1994. A Woman’s Place Is in the House:
Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era. University of Michigan Press,
chp. 6. (Blackboard)
Richard Fox and Jennifer Lawless. 2004 “Entering the Arena?
Gender and the Decision to Run for Office,” American Journal of Political
Science, 48, 2 (April): 264-280
(Blackboard)
Hawkesworth, Mary. 2003. “Congressional Enactments of
Race-Gender: Toward a Theory of Raced-Gendered Institutions.” American
Political Science Review 97, 4, (November): 529-550.
*Lyn Kathlene. 1995. "Alternative Views of Crime:
Legislative Policymaking in Gendered Terms," Journal of Politics 57:
696-723. (JStor)
Kirsten la Cour Debelko and Paul Herrnson. 1997. “Women’s
and Men’s Campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives.” Political Research
Quarterly 50: 121-135. (JStor)
Jennifer Lawless. 2004. “Women, War, and Winning Elections:
Gender Stereotyping in the Post-September 11th Era.” Political Research
Quarterly 57, 3 (September): 479-490. (Blackboard)
December 1. Racial
and Ethnic Politics
Matthew Streb. 2002. The New Electoral Politics of Race.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, chaps. 1-3, 5-6, 10
Rodolfo O. de la Garza, Angelo Falcon, and F. Chris Garcia.
1996. “Will the Real Americans Please Stand Up: Anglo and Mexican-American
Support of Core American Political Values.”
American Journal of Political Science, 40, 2 (May): 335-351.
(JStor)
Katherine Tate. 1993. From Protest to Politics: the New
Black Voters in American Elections, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
chapters1, 2, 4, 7, 8.
Course Requirements:
1) Go to the American Political Science website
(www.apsanet.org) and click on the 2005 Annual Meeting Program box, then click
on Annual Meeting Papers in the left hand column. That site will take you to
the papers that have been submitted for presentation at the 2005 American
Political Science Association meeting being held September 1-4. Search for a paper in some area of American
politics that you would like to read and discuss. Download the paper, email the paper to me. I will fit the paper
in to an appropriate week’s readings and you will lead the discussion on that
paper with me. Your grade will be factored with #2.
2) The quality of this seminar depends on participation from
all students. Active and informed participation in class discussions is
expected. Students are required to have completed all of the readings before
class. It is essential to have a good
understanding of each reading, not only individually but also how they fit
together. To encourage this process, each student is required to write a
thought piece of 1- 2 pages commenting on some aspect of the readings on 10 of
the 14 weeks. You could focus on a methodological concern, a theoretical
concern, or a question that the authors raise or leave unanswered. Do not spend a lot of time describing
authors’ writings. What I am looking
for is reactions, and thoughts that can be used for the basis of discussion and
learning in class. You should think of these writing assignments as
opportunities to think about and record your own reactions to the readings. The
papers are due by 9 AM on class day. You can email them to me or drop the paper
off in my office in the Monat Building.
Percent of course grade: 50%
No one will get an A in the class unless they attend class
most every week and participate in class discussion no matter how good your
written work is.
3) A bibliographic term paper or essay that traces the major
developments in the literature and research in one on the topical areas from
the course syllabus through the last quarter of the 20th century to the
beginning of 21st century. Choose a
classic piece of work in American Politics such as The American Voter or
Richard Neustadt's Presidential Power and show how political scientists have
used the theoretical approach, concepts, and research methodology of this work
to develop knowledge in this area and discuss and reflect upon where we go from
here. Consider the ways in which the thesis of this work has been expanded and
challenged. The purpose of the bibliographic term paper is to summarize and
analyze some of the most important work published in addition to the assigned
readings. You should not try to include each and every derivative work since a
classic article in your analysis. Instead you should focus on only the ones
that make substantial use of the classic. I expect the paper to be about 15
pages in length (double-spaced). (Longer is fine.)
Percent of Course Grade: 30%
Due: November 17th
4) The final examination will be a “mini” graduate field
exam. You will have several hours to answer a few questions that synthesize the
major themes, approaches and methodologies and critique them from some of the
subfields and from your bibliographic essay.
The final exam will be given during finals week. You can establish your own time as to when
you want to take the exam. You will be
required to tell me when you want to take it and we will set up for me to email
you the exam. You can then work on it at home or wherever in your pajamas or
whatever and email it back to me by a specified time.
Percent of Course Grade: 20%