Politics in America: Liberty and
Equality
The goals of this course are four: (1) a greater understanding of
your own opinions concerning political, social and economic issues in
the United States; (2) an experiential understanding of the art of
politics through the playing of two political games; (3) an
assessment of the debate over free speech on campus and (4) an
introduction to the empirical analysis of American politics through
group analysis projects featuring data from a Microcase CD-ROM.
Final grades are calculated on the following basis:
|
Essay on political, social and economic opinions
|
10% (30 points)
|
|
Group project and paper on campus speech
|
15% (45 points)
|
|
Midterm examination
|
30% (90 points)
|
|
Games, Group Analysis Projects and class
participation
|
15% (45 points)
|
|
Final examination (self scheduled)
|
30% (90 points)
|
300 total points are awarded for work in this class. 270 points
(90%) earns an "A,"
240 points (80%) a "B," 210 points (70%) a "C," and 180 points
(60%) a "D."
The following books are required and available in the
bookstore:
Theodore Lowi and Benjamin Ginsberg, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
(5th brief ed.)
Peter Woll, ed., AMERICAN GOVERNMENT: READINGS AND CASES (13th
ed.)
Jonathan Rauch, KINDLY INQUISITORS
G. Calvin Mackenzie, THE IRONY OF REFORM
Microcase Corporation, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT: AN INTRODUCTION
USING EXPLORIT (5th ed.)
In addition, all students will begin a Monday-Friday subscription
to the NEW YORK TIMES in the bookstore. Its cost for the term is
approximately $30.00.
The two political games we play -- Primitive Politics, based on
John Locke's "state of nature" and Entrepreneurs, involving the
pursuit of electoral victory - allow you to experience politics in a
lively, interactive fashion. One of the short answer questions on the
midterm examination will ask you to make analogies between game
behavior and actual American politics.
The class also includes two group projects. During week five we
will consider the question of campus speech codes. I will divide the
class into teams, each assigned with the task of evaluating and, if
necessary, revising our college's Statement on Discrimination and
Academic Freedom. This component of the course involves two class
sessions. Session one involves a lecture on the controversy. Also
during session one, the groups will meet and each will decide the
appropriateness of the college's statement and which, if any, changes
in its text are necessary. Teams will each present their
recommendations to the class as a whole during session two. Each team
will have twenty-five minutes for their presentation. At the end of
session two, the class will decide by majority vote which of the four
proposals it prefers. After the class has voted, students must write
a 4-7 page paper explaining and defending their personal evaluation
of the issue.
During the last weeks of the course, students will work in
analysis teams to create group presentations based on their research.
I will assign particular groups two chapters from the Microcase text
to analyze for purposes of their presentations. Each group will then
use their Microcase CD-ROMs to complete the analysis exercises for
their two chapters. Then, each group must prepare a thirty minute
presentation (fifteen minutes on each Microcase chapter assigned to
them). The presentation must answer three questions: (1) Which
findings from each chapter are most important in understanding that
chapter's topic? (2) Why are these findings the most important for
understanding the chapter's topic? (3) In summary, what major new
understandings about American politics result from your work on these
two chapters? Feel free to go beyond each chapter's assigned
exercises when analyzing data to answer these questions. Your group
should use the computer projection facilities in Willis 211 to
present the most significant findings. On the day of a group's
presentation, each group member must hand in completed exercises for
the two assigned chapters, along with a one-page report on the
activities of each group member in preparing the group presentation.
Material from the Microcase text and the student reports will be
included in the final examination.
Regarding the TIMES, each class session we'll begin with a
ten-minute headline summary conducted by two members of the class.
They should summarize the four major stories from the TIMES of that
day, preferably stories concerning American politics. Everyone will
get his or her chance to summarize the daily news. Be sure to bring
that day's TIMES to each class. Since we meet in the late afternoon,
you should be able to get it and look it over before class.
What follows is a schedule of class sessions by topic. We'll
usually spend one day on each topic.
1. Introduction and completion of the questionnaire (March 28)
2. American Principles (March 30)
Lowi and Ginsberg (L&G) chs. 1 and 2; Woll, 3-9,
40-45, 405-414 and U.S. v. Nixon (handout)
3. Federalism and Questions of Equal Protection (April 4)
L&G, chs. 3&4; Woll, 51-76, 113-120 and 145-161
4. Playing Primitive Politics (April 6 -- FIRST PAPER DUE)
Laver handout
5. Understanding Popular Politics (April 11)
L&G, ch. 10; Woll, 165-174
Mackenzie, chs. 1-3
6. Public Opinion, the Media and Elections (April 13)
L&G, chs. 8&9; Woll, 198-216; handouts
7. The 1996 Elections (April 18)
Stengel and Pooley, "Masters of the Message;" Scott
Keeter, "Public Opinion and the Election;" Anthony Corrado,
"Financing the 1996 Elections" (all on closed reserve;
Keeter and Corrado are in the volume edited by Gerald Pomper
and should be listed under Pomper on reserve).
8. Interest Groups (April 20)
L&G, ch. 11; Woll 234-261
9. Playing Entrepreneurial Politics (April 25)
Laver handout
*********** No class on April 27; I will be out of town.
**********
10. MIDTERM EXAMINATION (May 2)
11. Public Policy and Public Knowledge: A Microcase Example (May
4)
Microcase, chs. 3&16
12. The Controversy over Campus Speech (May 9)
Rauch, chs. 2, 3 and 5; Stanley Fish, THERE'S NO SUCH
THING AS FREE SPEECH AND IT'S A GOOD THING, TOO, pp. 11-19,
102-119, 296-298; Paul Berman, ed., DEBATING P.C., pp. 225-230
(both on closed reserve)
13. Class discussion and vote on the Carleton policy (May 11)
Rauch, chs. 1 and 6, Fish, pp. 120-140, 70-79; Berman,
ed., DEBATING P.C., introduction (both on closed reserve)
14. Congress and the Presidency (May 16)
L&G, chs. 5&6; Woll, 265-271, 331-339, 373-404
*********Campus Speech papers due at Noon, Wednesday, May 17 at
414 Willis *********
15. Congress vs. President in Policymaking (May 18)
Mackenzie, chs. 4-5
16. The Supreme Court and Bureaucracy (May 23)
L&G, ch. 7; Woll, 317-330, 414-429; Mackenzie, chs. 6
and 7; Peter Drucker, "Really Reinventing Government" (on closed
reserve)
17. Microcase Analysis Reports I (May 25)
Microcase, chs. 6-11
18. Microcase Analysis Reports II (May 30)
Microcase, chs, 4, 5, 12-15
YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT
Write a four to six page defense of the opinions evident in your
responses to the questionnaire. Your goal in this should be to
convince me of the reasonableness of the pattern of your opinions
evident in each of the sections of the questionnaire. The first
section concerns individual rights and liberties; the second a
variety of social issues, and the third a number of economic
issues.
You should first examine your responses to each of the sections
and try to discern a pattern. For example, when do you want the state
to intervene in the social life of the nation? The economic life?
What personal liberties must the state not tread upon? What are the
compelling reasons for this degree of state intervention? Next, you
should examine how your responses in each of the sections relate to
each other. For example, are you more in support of state social
intervention than economic intervention or vice versa? Why?
Some of the questions may concern topics with which you may not be
familiar and willing to venture much of an opinion. If so, do not be
afraid to admit your lack of exposure to such matters in your paper.
Rather, try to make sense of the opinions that you do hold. If you
find several questions about which you do not hold clear views, try
to explain why you have not had occasion to develop them.
You are graded on the quality of the arguments you use to defend
your positions. You should not dwell too much on one or a few
questions; a justification for your overall tendency is what counts
here. Also, do not explain your views in terms of personal background
-- for example, that the reason you are an economic conservative is
because your parents are economic conservatives. Instead, support
your views by presenting sound arguments why another person should
seriously consider adopting them.
You should conclude your paper by explaining why you identified
yourself as liberal, moderate or conservative, and Democrat or
Republican and how this self-identification relates to your pattern
of answers.
Your paper is due at class on Thursday, April 6. You should type
it or write it in double-spaced longhand. If writing in longhand,
assume a length of eight to twelve pages.
ANALYSIS GROUP PROJECTS
Here is the list of group projects. You need to examine the
Microcase text and give me your top four choices, written in rank
order, on Thursday, May 4 at class.
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (chs. 4&5)
Public Opinion and Elections (chs. 6&10)
The Media and Political Participation (chs. 7&8)
Parties and Interest Groups (chs. 9&11)
Congress and the Presidency (chs. 12&13)
The Bureaucracy and the Courts (chs. 14&15)