POLS 500 – Topics in American Politics, Fall 2007
Wednesday,
Prof. Barbara Burrell
Rm 115, Zulauf, 753-7050
bburrell@niu.edu
Office hours: Tuesdays
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 and study politics in
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, construct and implement research designs to test relationships and interpret evidence, and to think about how we might build on these works. 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.
The following books are available in the University Bookstore.
Robert Dahl, Who Governs?, 2nd edition
Morris Fiorina, Culture War?, 2nd edition
Samuel Kernell, Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 3rd edition
John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, 2nd edition
Angus Campbell, Warren Miller, Philip Converse and Donald Stokes, The American Voter
Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents, 1990
Jeffrey Segal and Harold Spaeth 2002, The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone
David Mayhew, 2004. The
Electoral Connection, Yale University Press
(either edition)
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 or new One-Card procedure, go to general databases and scroll to Jstor.
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 28. Introduction
(In place of August 29)
September 5.
Pluralism
Robert Dahl, Who Governs?
Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz. 1962, "Two Faces of Power," American Political Science Review: 947-52. (JStor)
September 12. Voting Behavior
Angus Campbell, Philip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald
Stokes. 1966. The American Voter,
September 19.
Public Opinion and Ideology
Morris Fiorina with Samuel Abrams
and Jeremy Pope, 2006. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized
Alan Abramowitz and Kyle Saunders. “Is Polarization a Myth?” forthcoming in Journal of Politics (available in Blackboard in Course Documents)
September 26.
Civic Engagement and Political Participation
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone
October 3.
Political Parties
John Aldrich, Why Parties? Chapters 1-2, 6-9
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)
Walter Dean Burnham. 1965. “The Changing Shape of the American
Political Universe.”
October 10. Interest Groups
Robert Salisbury, 1969. “An Exchange Theory of Interest
Groups.”
of Political Science (now AJPS) 13 (February):1-32. Jstor
Jack Walker, 1983. “The Origins and Maintenance of Interests
Groups in
American Political Science Review 77(June):390-406. Jstor
Robert Salisbury, 1984. “Interest Representation: The Dominance of Institutions.”
American Political Science Review 78 (March): 64-76. Jstor
Hall, Richard and Frank Wayman. 1990. “Buying Time: Moneyed Interests and the
Mobilization of Bias in Congressional Committees.” American
Political Science
Review 84(September):797-820. Jstor
Jeffry Berry, 1993. “Citizen Groups and the Changing Nature of Interest
Group Politics in America.” Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, Vol. 528, Citizens, Protest, and Democracy. (Jul.,
1993), pp. 30-41. Jstor
Jocelyn Elise Crowley; Theda Skocpol. 2001. “The Rush to Organize: Explaining Associational Formation in the United States, 1860s-1920s “,
October 17. Legislators and Representation
Richard F. Fenno.1977. "
David Mayhew. The Electoral Connection, Yale University Press, either edition
David Mayhew, 2001. “Observations On Congress: The Electoral Connection A Quarter Century after Writing It.” PS, 34, 2 (June), 251-252. (Jstor)
Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes.’” Journal of Politics 61: 628-57. (Jstor)
David Canon, Matthew Schousen, and Patrick Sellers. 1996. “The Supply Side of Congressional Redistricting: Race and Strategic Politicians, 1972-1992.” Journal of Politics 58, 3 (August): 846-862 (Jstor)
October 24. The Presidency
Richard E. Neustadt. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents. (chps 1-5)
Samuel Kernell. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership. CQ Press, chaps 1-4
October 31. 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)
November 7. Judicial Behavior
Robert A. Dahl. 1967. "The Supreme Court’s Role
in National Policy‑Making." In Pluralist Democracy in the
Jeffrey Segal and Harold Spaeth 2002, The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, 2,3,7,8.
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. (JStor)
November 14.
Policy Agendas
John Kingdon. 1995/2003.
Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, 2nd edition.
Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones. 1991. “Agenda Dynamics and Policy Subsystems,” Journal of Politics, 53, 4: 1044-1074. (JStor)
November 28. Gender and Politics
Barbara Burrell. Gender in Campaigns for the
Continue APSA paper presentations.
December 5.
Discussion of research papers and APSA paper presentations
Course Requirements:
1) Go to the American Political Science website (www.apsanet.org) and click on Online Program in the middle of the page to search for papers of interest to you. Click on Annual Meeting Papers to see if the paper has been put online. Download the paper, and load it into the Discussion section of Blackboard. I will fit the paper in to an appropriate week’s readings and you will lead the discussion on that paper. You will have approximately 15 minutes to present the paper. Use your time wisely. Concentrate on the central features of the author’s work. Do not spend a lot of time presenting background material and a literature review. Feel free to contact the author ahead of time and discuss his or her stimulus for doing this research.
Grade: 10% of course grade.
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
Grade: 45% of course grade
No one will get an A in the class unless they attend class most every week and participate in class discussion with thoughtful comments that contribute to our knowledge building on the week’s subject matter no matter how good your written work is.
Grade: 20% of course grade
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 the publication of a classic article in your analysis. Instead you should focus on only the ones that make substantial use of the classic. You might divide the paper into two parts, one theoretical and conceptual, and one, empirical focusing on data collection and research methodology and findings. I expect the paper to be about 15 pages in length (double-spaced). (Longer is fine.)
Due: November 28th
Grade: 30% of course grade
These essays will be the basis of class discussion on December 5th.
4) You will help me build a supplemental reading list for this course by posting in the Discussion section of Blackboard, 5 readings from your term paper that you consider to be key readings for a student of American politics
Grade: 5% of course grade.
Reaction Paper Dos and Don’ts (borrowed from Elizabeth Theiss-Morse)
Do
Focus on one main idea.
Draw on and try to integrate all of the readings for the week.
Make connections to previous readings, where appropriate.
Develop an argument.
Push your argument, try to answer the tough questions.
Offer compelling criticism.
Offer ideas for future research.
Pursue an argument you especially liked.
Analyze the methods used, offer idea(s) for better or expanded methods.
Do Not
Summarize
Just give your opinion on a topic
Pick a bunch of little points to address
Critique the writing style.
Tell me and article or book is and/or boring and/or difficult
Ignore the readings or only look at a small portion of the readings
Ignore relevant parts of the readings.
State the obvious.
Redefine terms, unless you justify
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