This class is designed as a research seminar. Each student will conduct a series of interviews on topics in American political culture and values with a citizen of Northfield. These interviews will include both structured and open-ended discussions, as well as the collection of data through what is known as Q-methodology. Q-methodology provides quantitative data that can reveal structures of perception and preference. It can also serve as a springboard for further discussions with each participant. More details will be provided in class.

We will also read scholarly discourse and social science research on topics such as individualism, democratic and capitalistic values, citizenship and participation, patriotism, political heroism, tolerance, and so on. We will view videos of intellectuals and others discussing their ideas about American political culture, and we will discuss your own thoughts about the central elements of our political culture. This reading, viewing, and discussing--as well as your own views and perspectives--will generate fuel for your interviews.

The overall objective of the course is to examine the relationship between scholarly and intellectual discourse and research on U.S. political culture, and the everyday political experience of ordinary citizens in the United States. Your role will be to serve as an observer--an observer of multiple modes of discourse--and to arrive at tentative conclusions about the relationships among them. In some small sense, you are being asked to evaluate the relationship (or lack thereof) between academic discourse on the one hand, and the subjective empirical realities of the people who allow you temporary access to their thoughts, experiences and understandings.

There will be some common content to your interviews--everyone will cover the role of government, citizenship and participation, the election, political heroes, and patriotism. There will also be some unique content to your interviews, depending on your interests and those of your interviewee.

Much classroom time will be spent organizing and clarifying ideas for your interviews. We will discuss the assigned readings as they fit into this process. Please keep in mind that the readings are meant to stimulate your thinking about these topics and to guide you in talking to people about their own political values and about American political culture. They provide background material that should enrich your own understanding and enable you to interview people in an effective way about these topics.

Copies of the assigned readings are on reserve in the library. You are expected to read the assigned material for each class, in order to make sure we are all "on the same page" in our efforts to discuss and clarify ideas and prepare for the interviews with citizens.

Grades will be based on class participation; on your willingness and ability to help other students conduct their research projects; on the quality of your own efforts to prepare and conduct interviews; on the short written assignments; and finally, on the research paper you write, which is due the last day of class (Tuesday, November 17). Details of the research project and paper will be presented in class. Because of nature of the research project assigned for this seminar, class attendance is mandatory.

Thursday, September 10 Introduction

Tuesday September 15 Political Culture

Read: Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, chs. 1-3, pp. 31-109.

Thursday September 17 Interviewing and Active Listening Skills

Read: 1. Dohaghy, "Asking and Answering Questions," pp. 97-112. 2. Adler and Towne, "Listening vs. Hearing," pp. 222-252. 3. Jennifer L. Hochschild, What's Fair, "Why There is No Socialism in the United States," ch. 1, pp. 1-26.

Tuesday, September 22: Political Perspective and Q-Methodology

Read: 1. Steven Brown and Richard Taylor, "Perspective in Concept Formation," Social Science Quarterly, 1972, pp. 852-860. 2. Steven Brown and Richard Taylor, "Frames of Reference and the Observation of Behavior," Social Science Quarterly, 1973, pp. 29-40. 3. John Dryzek and Jeffrey Berejikian, "Reconstructive Democratic Theory," American Political Science Review, 1993, pp. 48-60.

Thursday September 24: Participation and Citizenship

Read: 1. Pamela Johnston Conover, Ivor M. Crewe, and Donald D. Searing, "The Nature of Citizenship in the United States and Great Britain: Empirical Comments on Theoretical Themes," Journal of Politics, August 1991, pp. 800-832. 2. Joel D. Schwartz, "Participation and Multisubjective Understanding: An Interpretivist Approach to the Study of Political Participation," Journal of Politics, 1984, pp. 1117-1141. 3. Beth Theiss-Morse, "Conceptualizations of Good Citizenship and Political Participation," Political Behavior 1993 pp. 355-380.

Tuesday September 29: American Individualism

Read: 1. Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, Habits of the Heart, chs. 6-8, pp. 142-218. 2. Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, The Good Society, Introduction and chs. 3-4, pp. 3-18, 82-144.

Thursday October 1: Individualism vs. Collectivism

Read: 1. Harry Triandis, Christopher McClusker & C. Harry Hui, "Multimethod Probes of Individualism and Collectivism," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1990, pp. 1006-1020. 2. David Trafimow, Harry C. Triandis & Sharon G. Goto, "Some Tests of the Distinction Between the Private Self and the Collective Self," Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 1991, pp. 649-655.

Tuesday October 6: Self Interest vs. The Common Good

Read: 1. David O. Sears & Carolyn L. Funk, "Self-Interest in Americans' Political Opinions," in Jane J. Mansbridge (ed.), Beyond Self-Interest, ch. 9, pp. 147-170. 2. Diana Burgess, Beth Haney, Wendy Rahn, Mark Snyder, John L. Sullivan & John E. Transue, "Motivating Civic Involvement: An Experimental Comparison of Self-Interest, Duty, and Social Norms," mimeo. 3. Tom R. Tyler, Kenneth A. Rasinski, and Eugene Griffin, "Alternative Images of the Citizen: Implications for Public Policy," American Psychologist Sept. 1986, pp. 970-978.

Thursday October 8: Social Capital

Read: 1. Robert D. Putnam, "Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America," mimeo. 2. Gerald Gamm & Robert Putnam, "Association Building in America, 1850-1920," mimeo. 3. John Brehm & Wendy Rahn, "Individual Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital," American Journal of Political Science 1997, pp. 999-1023.

Tuesday October 13 Attitudes Toward Government

Read: 1. Gary Orren, "Fall From Grace: The Public's Loss of Faith in Government," in Joseph Nye, Philip Zelikow, and David King, Why People Don't Trust Government, ch. 3, pp. 77-107. 2. David C. King, "The Polarization of American Parties and Mistrust of Government, in Joseph Nye, Philip Zelikow, and David King, Why People Don't Trust Government, ch.6, pp. 155-178. 3. Linda L. Bennett and Stephen Earl Bennett, Living with Leviathan: Americans Coming to Terms with Big Government, chs. 2 & 4, pp. 20-50, 79-108.

Thursday October 15: Welfare and Values

Read: 1. Stanley Feldman & John Zaller, "The Political Culture of Ambivalence: Ideological Responses to the Welfare State," American Journal of Political Science, 1992, pp. 268-307. 2. Stanley Feldman & Marco Steenbergen, "Alternative Bases of Support for Social Welfare: Egalitarianism vs. Humanitarianism," mimeo.

Tuesday October 20: Patriotism & Heroism

Read: 1. John Sullivan, Amy Fried & Mary Dietz, "Patriotism, Politics, and the Presidential Election of 1988," American Journal of Political Science, Feb. 1992, pp. 200-234. 2. Amy Fried, "Is Political Action Heroic? Heroism and American Political Culture," American Politics Quarterly, Oct. 1993,pp. 490-517.

Thursday October 22: Political Events as Socializers

Read: Bennett & Bennett, ch. 5, pp. 109-133. 2. David O. Sears & Nicholas A. Valentino, "Politics Matters: Political Events as Catalysts for Preadult Socialization," American Political Science Review, 1997 pp. 45-65.

Tuesday October 27: Political Expertise

Read: Michael X. Delli Carpini & Scott Keeter, What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters, chs. 2 and 6, pp. 62-104, 218-267.

Thursday October 29: Electoral Behavior and the Elections of 1998

Read: William H. Flanigan & Nancy H. Zingale, Political Behavior of the American Electorate, chs. 3, 6, and 8, pp. 51-67, 108-136, 165-189.

Tuesday November 3: Democratic and Capitalistic Values

Read: 1. Herbert McClosky and John Zaller, The American Ethos, chs. 1-2, and 6, pp. 1-61, 161-188. 2. John L. Sullivan, James Piereson and George E. Marcus, "An Alternative Conceptualization of Political Tolerance," American Political Science Review, September 1979, pp. 781-794.

Thursday November 5: Race and Politics

Read: Donald R. Kinder & Lynn M. Sanders, Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals, chs. 5-6, pp. 92-160.

Tuesday November 10 Equality

Read: Hochschild, What's Fair? Chs. 5-6, pp. 111-191.

Thursday November 12 Catch up day

Tuesday November 17 Hand in Paper