Dr. Matt Streb
Office: Zulauf 407
EMAIL: mstreb@niu.edu
Office Hours:
Tuesday,
Thursday,
POLS 305: Parties and Elections
Fall 2007
T and R,
DuSable 459
____________________________________________________________________
Course
Description:
The previous two presidential elections were two of the most controversial in
In
a representative democracy, political parties and elections are essential. Citizens must vote for our political
system to truly work and parties provide some semblance to a complicated
process. It is important then for
us to understand political parties, voting, and elections. This course will begin by examining
theories of voting. We will discuss
who votes, why they vote, and how they vote. Next, we will turn to political
parties. Why are they essential for
democracy? What roles do parties
play? Why do we only have two major
parties in the U.S? Should we have
more? Finally, we will analyze
presidential elections. We will
cover topics including candidate recruitment, the nomination process, the
impact of party organizations and interest groups on elections, the electoral
process, the influence of money on elections, and campaign strategy. We will
relate all of these topics to the previous presidential elections and to what
we can expect in 2008.
Grading: Depending
on your decision, either four or five grades will be given over the course of
the semester. A midterm exam to be taken on
Thursday, October 18th and
a final exam to be taken on Tuesday,
December 11th at
You
must also write at least two papers (5-8 pages in length) and have the option of
writing a third. There are four
paper topics to choose from, each due on a different day. For the first three paper topics, you
will write persuasive papers on the following:
1) Discuss whether you believe
2) The presidential nomination process has
become increasingly controversial because of the frontloading of states’
primaries and caucuses. What is the
solution? Put forth and defend a
reform to the nomination process (Due 10/30)
3) Perhaps the most controversial aspect of
the U.S. Constitution is the electoral college. Should the electoral
college be kept in place or abolished? If it should be retained are there any
reforms to it that should be made? (Due
11/27)
Although
each of these subjects will be discussed in class, students are expected to
conduct their own research outside of class. Unless you are downloading a journal
article or accessing a newspaper or news magazine article electronically, the
Internet is not to be used for research. If you have any questions, please
see me.
For
the forth paper, you will run a presidential simulation using the game President
Forever 2008 (Due 12/4).
The simulation can be downloaded from
http://www.theoryspark.com/index.htm for $19.95. For those interested in this fourth
option, I will hold a mandatory session on Tuesday, October 23rd at
All four paper topics will be discussed in greater
detail during class.
If you choose to write only two papers, then each
paper and both exams will be worth approximately 25% of your final
grade. If you choose to write three
papers, then each paper and both exams will be worth approximately 20%
of your final grade. You may not
write more than three papers. Also,
I will not accept late papers.
PAC Money: Political Action Committees are organizations that provide
presidential candidates with campaign money in order to help those candidates
become elected. Just
as PACs are said to “buy” influence over legislation (although we
will discuss whether this claim is true), you will have the opportunity to
“buy” your grade.
Students’ PACs may donate up to $5,000. The way you accumulate PAC money is
quite simple. For each class you
attend, your “PAC” will give me $150. Attendance can earn you as much as
$4,050 (27 class periods, not including the midterm exam). You
have to be in class when I take attendance to earn PAC money. Class begins at
So what can PAC money do for you? Depending on how much money your PAC
gives me, you can either make your grade on an exam or paper count for a
greater or a lesser percentage of your final grade or add points to one of your
grades. Each $100 you earn allows
you to increase or decrease the weight of a grade by .2% or you can increase
one grade by .1 points. For
example, say you earned $4,000 by the end of the semester and you received an A
on your midterm. Instead of your
midterm counting 25% of your final grade, it can now count 33% of your final
grade. You could then make your
second paper, for example, only count 17% of your final grade. Or, you could simply choose to add 4
points to one of your grades.
However, I am not easy to buy.
You must be able to donate at least $4,000 in order for me to change the
weight of your grade. Also, if you
miss more than four classes or get
more than three PAC quizzes
incorrect, you do not qualify for PAC money. You must let me know how you want your
PAC money spent before you take your final exam and cannot change the
percentage of more than two grades. PAC money will be explained in greater
detail on the first day of class.
Examples of How PAC Money
Can Be Used:
You attend 25 of the 27
class periods $3,750
You
get 7 of the 9 quizzes correct $700
Free
money $50
Total
PAC Money $4,500
You receive an A on the midterm, a B on your first
paper, and a B+ on your second paper.
You decide that you do not think that you are going to do very well on
the final. Therefore, you decide to
make your midterm count for 34% of your final grade and the final count for 16%
of your final grade. Or, you could
simply add 4.5 points to one of your grades.
You
attend 15 of the 27 class periods $2,250
You
get 2 of the 9 quizzes correct $200
Free
money $50
Total
PAC Money $2,500
Your contribution does not persuade me to change the
weight of your grades because you earned less than $4,000.
Grading Scale:
93%-100%
A 90%-92.9% A- 87.5%-89.9% B+
83%-87.4% B 80%-82.9% B- 77.5%-79.9% C+
73%-77.4% C 70%-72.9% C- 67.5%-69.9% D+
63%-67.4% D 60%-62.9% D- Less
than 60% F
In
rare instances, I will raise a final grade slightly if the student regularly
attends class, participates, and shows progress.
Required Course Materials:
Four
books are required for this course:
-John
F. Bibby and Brian F. Schaffner’s
Politics, Parties, & Elections in
-
-Martin P. Wattenberg’s Is Voting for Young People?
-Stephen J. Wayne’s The Road to the White House 2008
These
books are available at the NIU Bookstore.
Students are strongly encouraged to visit sites such as www.campusi.com to find cheaper, used
versions of these books (although, students should not buy earlier editions of
the Bibby and Schaffner or Wayne books since they have been updated
substantially).
Course Policies:
1. Attendance: Simply put, you are expected to be
here. If you want to have any hope
of passing the class or doing well, you will need to be in class. I have yet to meet a person who has
regularly missed my class and passed the course.
2. Be on time: Class begins promptly at
3. Turn
the cell phones off!: My policy is that if your cell phone
goes off in class, I’m the one who answers it. Unless you want me talking to your
parents, siblings, or boyfriend/girlfriend, turn the cell phones off. If you have an extenuating circumstance
(e.g., pregnant spouse, day care, etc.), please let me know.
4. Makeup
exams: I will only give a
makeup examination under extraordinary circumstances. If such circumstances arise, please
contact me as soon as possible and before
the scheduled exam. If you fail to
contact me before the scheduled exam, you will receive a 0 for the exam. Students may be asked to support
requests for makeup exams with documentation.
5. Late
papers: I do not accept late
papers. If you want to write a
paper on, say, the two-party system, but do not hand in the paper at the
beginning of class on the day that it is due, it will be counted as though you
skipped the option or writing that paper.
If you have to hand in a paper in order to meet the two paper
requirement and fail to do so at the beginning of class on the day that the
paper is due, you will receive a 0 for the paper.
6. Contacting me: The best way to get in touch with me
is to come to my office hours. If
you can not make my office hours, then please send me an email with several
dates and times that you are available to meet and I will be happy to set
something up. If you send me an
email, I will respond as quickly as possible. However, I will only respond to emails
that use capitalization and punctuation and are not replete with grammatical
errors. i
will not rspnd 2 u if i recve a messge that look like this lol
7. Academic
dishonesty: In preparing for
your work and meeting the requirements of this course, you are expected to
adhere to all the rules, regulations, and standards set forth by the Department
of Political Science,
8. 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 (CARR) on
the fourth floor of the
Web Pages of Great News
Sources on Parties and Elections:
The New York Times www.nytimes.com
The Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com
The Los Angeles Times www.latimes.com
USA Today www.usatoday.com
CNN www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/index.html
Roll
Call www.rollcall.com
Project
Vote Smart www.vote-smart.org
Campaigns
and Elections www.campaignline.com
Open
Secrets (Money) www.crp.org
The
Democratic Party www.democrats.org
The Republican Party www.rnc.org
The Green Party www.gpus.org
The Libertarian Party www.lp.org
You
can find individual candidates’ web pages from both
major parties as well as third parties and an incredible amount of
candidate information from the Project Vote Smart page.
How Can I Do Well in this
Course?
This course is no more
difficult than most other 300 level courses you have had, if you keep up with the work!! It is essential that you are
regularly in class, take good notes, do all of the readings, and spend some
time reflecting on what you have read.
Because there is a significant amount of reading in the course, make
sure you keep up with it. Doing all
of the assigned reading the night before the class will keep you from
contributing much to the class.
More importantly, it will keep you from getting the most out of the
course. If you do not do the
readings, you will not do well in this class.
Each
class you will be introduced to “key terms.” I highly recommend that you make
notecards after class that include the definition and
significance of the term. These are
the terms that may appear on your tests.
Making notecards after each class may seem like more work, but it will
actually cut your work time in the end and allow you to write much stronger
IDs. Instead of preparing for the
IDs before the exam (they start to add up), you will already have the IDs ready
to go and can begin studying earlier.
Writing out the IDs after class will allow you to write higher quality
IDs because the information will be fresh in your mind, and if you don’t
understand something it will become apparent quickly.
Finally, I strongly encourage students to visit me
during my office hours if you have questions about the course material.
Department of Political Science
Web Site:
Undergraduates are encouraged to consult the
Department of Political Science web site on a regular basis. This up-to-date,
central source of information will assist students in contacting faculty and staff,
reviewing course requirements and syllabi, exploring graduate study,
researching career options, tracking department events, and accessing important
details related to undergraduate programs and activities. To reach the site, go
to http://polisci.niu.edu. Also, if you would like to receive the
department’s e-announcements that feature information on internships,
scholarships, lectures, POLS club activities, and other important information
via email, please send me an email asking to be added to the list.
Internships with
Presidential Candidates:
With the
Course Outline:
NOTE:
*I reserve the right to change the course outline.
August
28th T Introduction
to the Course
August
30th R No
Class. APSA
conference.
Voting
September
4th T Where
is the American Voter?
(
212-225)
September
6th R Where
is the American Voter?, cont.
Theories
of Voting
(Wattenberg, Preface-chp 4)
September
11th T How
Smart Is the American Voter?
September
13th R Is
Voting for Young People?
(Wattenberg, chps 5-8)
Political Parties
September
18th T What is a Party?
The History of American
Parties
(Bibby and Schaffner, chps
1-2)
September
20th R
The Party Organization
(Bibby and Schaffner, chp 4)
September
25th T The Party Organization, cont.
The
Party in the Electorate
(Bibby
and Schaffner, pp. 225-254)
September
27th R The Party in the Electorate, cont.
October
2nd T The Party in Government
(Bibby
and Schaffner, chp 9)
October
4th R Third
Parties
(Bibby
and Schaffner, chp 3; Streb, chps
1 and 3)
Paper
option #1 due!
October
9th T Politics
without Parties
(Bibby
and Schaffner, chp 10)
October
11th R TBA
October
16th T Midterm
Review Session
October
18th R Midterm
Presidential Elections
October
23rd T The Nomination Process
(Streb,
chp 2; Bibby and Schaffner, chp
6; Wayne, chps 1, 4-5)
October
25th R The Nomination Process, cont.
October
30th T The
Heck Is a Caucus?
Paper
option #2 due!
November
1st R The Need for Money, Money, Money
(Streb, chps 4-5; Wayne, chp
2)
November
6th T One
Big Party: The Nominating
Convention
(
November
8th R How
to Run a Winning Campaign
Winning on Television: The
Role of the Media in
Presidential Elections
(Streb, chps 6-7; Wayne,
chps 7-8)
November 13th T Winning
on Television, cont.
November
15th R Movie:
War Room
November
20th T Presidential
Debates: Is Anyone Paying
Attention?
(Bibby
and Schaffner, pp. 291-292)
November 22nd R No
class. Happy Thanksgiving!
November
27th T Movie:
Debating Our Destiny
Paper
option #3 due!
November 29th
Electoral College
(Bibby and Schaffner, pp. 274-284)
December
4th T Predicting
Presidential Elections
(Wayne, chps 9-10; Streb,
chps 8-9)
Paper
option #4 due!
December
6th R Review
for Final Exam
December 11th T Final
(