POLS 300, American Presidential
Elections
Spring 2010
Professor Mikel Wyckoff
Office: Zulauf 403,
Hours: Tues. & Thurs. 11-12:15 & by
appointment
753-7056 mwyckoff@niu.edu
(Note: If you are enrolled in POLS 300 please
consult the official course syllabus that is available on Blackboard. From time to time, minor adjustments must be
made to the syllabus and I have no access to this document once it is placed
online.)
The first American political parties
were organized by our founding fathers even though many of those men were quite
ambivalent about the desirability of parties and, indeed, about the very idea
of allowing the masses to vote in presidential elections. Despite their doubts, founders like Jefferson,
Madison and Hamilton soon came to the conclusion that mass electorates were a
fact of life and that parties were needed to help organize and bring coherence
to the electoral process. Since then, a two-party system (with occasional input
from smaller, third parties) has almost always been present to help structure
American presidential elections.
Although our party system may appear to be static, in fact the parties
have reorganized and renewed themselves many times through a process of
“realignment.”
Just as political parties have
reinvented themselves over time, political campaign styles and strategies have
changed greatly over the years. Originally, presidential candidates were not
expected to campaign at all, and most of them didn’t, at least not in person. But shortly after the turn of the 20th
Century, candidates learned the value of traveling around the country making
public speeches during campaigns, and eventually they learned to take advantage
of new electronic media to get their messages out to the people. More recently, it has become obvious that the
Internet is now having profound effects on how campaigns are organized, funded,
and executed.
Voters, too, have changed over
the years. Voters in the early years
were drawn from a nation of small farmers, and initially only white males who
owned property were thought to be properly qualified to vote. Later electorates have been shaped by processes
of industrialization and modernization, and over the years exclusions based on
race and gender were grudgingly abandoned.
Furthermore, major blocs of voters have been known to change their party
loyalties. White southerners, for
example, used to be steadfast Democrats.
Today, the bulk of them are loyal Republicans.
POLS 300 will examine these changing
aspects of American presidential elections and we will study in some detail the
candidates, issues and partisan trends that have appeared in American
presidential elections during the post-World War II era.
The books shown below are required
for the course and are available for purchase at our campus book-stores (and
elsewhere):
John
Kenneth White and David M. Shea, New Party
Politics: From Jefferson and Hamilton
to the Information
Age (2nd ed., Bedford/St.
Martins, 2004).
Kathleen
Hall Jamieson, Packaging the Presidency
(3rd ed.,
Michael
Nelson (ed.), The Elections of 2008 (CQ Press, 2010)
Exams. Two midterms
and a final exam will be given contributing 30%, 35% and 35%, respectively, to
your final grade. All exams will have a
significant long essay component plus some multiple choice questions. A significant portion of the final exam will
be cumulative in nature, requiring you to deal with themes encountered
throughout the course.
Attendance is not formally computed into
your grade but naturally I expect you to come regularly, to be on time when at
all possible, and to do the assigned readings on schedule. To encourage this I reserve the right to
increase a final course grade by up to one-third of a letter as a reward for
good class participation. To help me
learn names I will set up a seating chart and will keep a daily record of
attendance.
Makeup exams and grades of Incomplete will be provided
cheerfully when needed but only for reasons of significant illness, personal
tragedy, or other similarly extraordinary circumstances, and documentary
evidence of the extraordinary circumstances normally must be provided by the
student.
Cell Phones & Class Decorum. Please silence and refrain from using your cell
phone and other electronic devices during class. Also please be civil, use common sense, and
respect the needs of your fellow students, not to mention the needs of the grouchy
old professor (“get off my lawn!”) who is trying to offer you a decent lecture
each day.
Extra Credit. Sorry, but
none is available. No exceptions.
Students with Disabilities. NIU
abides by theRehabilitation Act of 1973 which mandates reasonable
accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. If you have a diagnosed
disability and require some type of instructional accommodation, please contact
the Center for Access-Ability Resources (CAAR), located in the University
Health Services building (753-1303).
COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
I will try to adhere to this schedule
as closely as possible, but I reserve the right to make adjustments if necessary. I may, for example, add a reading to the
schedule now and then. It is your responsibility to be in class regularly and
to check the syllabus on Blackboard regularly so that you will be aware of
these occasional modifications.
PART I:
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE AMERICAN ELECTORAL PROCESS
A. Introduction to the course (Week of January 11)
-- nature and
functions of political parties
-- some
fundamental characteristics of the American party system and electoral process
Read: White/Shea, Ch. 1, pp. 16-29; Ch. 10, pp. 308-322 (why a
two-party system?)
Jack
Rakove, “The Accidental Electors,” NY
Times (
Martin Luther King Day: January 18, No Class
B. Evolution of the Electoral Processes: Nominations
and Campaigns (January
20, 25 & 27)
Read: White/Shea,
Ch.5, pp. 134-159,
Currinder,
pp. 163- 173 in
C. History and Evolution of Political Parties and
Partisanism in
Read: White/Shea, Ch. 2-3
and
D. Party Realignment (February 8)
Read: White/Shea, pp.
175-185 in
V.O. Key, “A
Theory of Critical Elections,” (Blackboard).
V.O. Key, “Secular Realignment and the Party System,” (Blackboard).
EXAM
I: Wednesday, February 10
PART II:
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS, 1952 –
A. Presidential Elections, 1952-1956 (Week of February
15)
Read: White/Shea, pp. 165-175 in Ch. 6 (a theory of voter decision
making).
Jamieson, Ch. 2-3.
B. Presidential Elections, 1960-1964 (Week of February
22)
Read:
C. Presidential Elections, 1968 (Week of March 1)
Read:
Spring Break: Week of March 8
D. Presidential
Elections, 1972-1976 (March
15, 17 and 22)
Read: Jamieson, Ch. 7-8.
EXAM
II: Wednesday, March 24
PART III:
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS, 1980 – 2008
A. Presidential
Elections, 1980 (Week
of March 29)
Read:
B. Presidential Elections, 1984-1988 (Week of April 5)
Read: Jamieson, Ch. 10-11.
C. Presidential Elections, 1992-1996 (Week of April 12)
Read: Jamieson,
Ch.12.
Sabato, "The
November Vote: A Status Quo Election," (e-reserves; access from Blackboard)
D. Presidential Elections, 2000-2004 (Week of April 19)
Read: Nelson,“The
Setting: George W. Bush, Majority President,” (e-reserves; access from
Blackboard).
Pomper, “The
Presidential Election: The Ills of American Politics After 9/11,” (e-reserves).
F. Presidential Elections, 2008 (Week of April 26)
Read: Currinder, pp. 173-184 in
Pomper,
Mellow,
FINAL EXAM – May 5,